Part 1
Hello
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” — Proverbs 4:23
If you’ve ever cleaned out a garage or a storage room, you know how it goes. You don’t realize how much has piled up until you start pulling things out. Old boxes.
Broken tools. Stuff you forgot you even had. And somewhere along the way, you stop and think, Why did I keep all this?
The heart works the same way.
Not the physical organ—but the inner life. The
place where emotions, motives, memories, and attachments live. Over time, things get stored there—offenses, disappointments, words people said that stuck longer than they should have.
Most of it doesn’t feel like clutter. It feels justified.
In 2010, a man named Collyer Brothers’ home in New York—abandoned for years—was finally cleared out. When crews went inside, they found over 100 tons of junk packed into the house. Newspapers, furniture, random objects stacked floor to ceiling. What looked normal from the outside was completely unlivable on the inside. It had accumulated slowly…one piece at a time.
That’s how the heart gets crowded. Not overnight, but gradually.
One unresolved hurt.
One grudge you decided to carry.
One moment where you closed off just a little more than before.
Eventually, it’s not just “in there”—it’s shaping how you respond, how you trust, how you see people.
Scripture
doesn’t say ignore your heart—it says guard it.
That means paying attention to what gets stored there. Not everything deserves long-term residence. Some of what you’re carrying made sense at the time. But it may not belong anymore.
Today isn’t about fixing everything. It’s about noticing what’s been sitting there too long.
The resentment that keeps resurfacing.
The
disappointment you’ve replayed a hundred times.
The quiet hardness that’s formed without you realizing it.
You don’t have to force it out. But you do have to stop pretending it’s not there.
Because whatever fills the heart…eventually flows into everything else.
Musical Reflection: Softly & Tenderly
Have a great day and God bless!
Pastor Mike / The Open Word
