The inspiration for this talk was something I heard on a short piece of a podcast of Joe Rogan talking to Oliver Anthony (Chris Lunsford) who came out with the recent viral hit “Rich Men North of Richmond.”
Answering a question from Joe Rogan about what inspires him, Oliver quoted the following from the Bible:
Proverbs 4:23-26
23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
24 Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.
26 Give careful thought to the[a] paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.
Guarding our heart is critically important. As they used to say in the early days of computer programming, “Garbage in – garbage out!”
We have both a higher and a lower nature. We need to curb our lower nature and cultivate our higher nature. This means consciously choosing what it is that we will hold to be valuable, what we will treasure. There is another incredibly wise quote I saw when I was looking up the Bible quote above.
Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
The need for guidelines in life which produce outcomes that are objectively in my interest – my eternal well-being – is all important.
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
