It has dawned on me that the feelings in our hearts can offer sound guidance on whether what we are about to embark on is right for us. That's after remembering how I have set a goal only to wake up in a nasty frame of mind when the day of accomplishing the goal dawns.
One Sunday in 2007 when I was 19 for instance, I was psyched up to meet Mr. Kevit Detsei, a businessman in Nairobi, the following day to pitch a business idea I had. But alas! When Monday dawned, I felt timid and confused on my way to Mr. Detsei's office. No wonder Mr. Detsei listened to me for a minute or so and then called a junior employee in his company to deal with me.
Although I didn't realize it at the time, I just didn't have the interpersonal skills and communication ability to run a successful enterprise. I still needed more education. But my heart must have been aware of my shortcomings. For how else can you explain the timidity and confusion I felt on my way to Mr. Detsei's office?
Another time I set a goal that my heart didn't approve of was in 2012. That year, I made it known to my friends on Facebook that I would run for a senatorial seat in the 2013 Kenya's general elections. Oh my! Deciding to run for such a big political seat made me feel guilty, especially when turning up for meetings of my high school's old boys.
There was a Sunday in 2012, for example, when a friend of mine named Alfonce Nzioka started introducing me as a senatorial aspirant to an old boy during a function held in my former high school. I felt so embarrassed of the introduction that I wished Nzioka could just shut up.
Even after scaling down my political ambition by registering to vie for an MCA (Member of County Assembly) seat, the lowest elective post in Kenya's general elections, I still wasn't enthusiastic about getting into politics. I found myself lacking the spirit to campaign with the charisma of my heroes: Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
When election day reached, I was feeling so low in spirits that I didn't go to vote despite my name being on the ballot as an MCA candidate. I also didn't bother to find out how many votes I garnered in the elections because I hadn't put forth a spirited campaign.
By feeling guilty and embarrassed in my heart when I attempted to venture into politics, God was speaking to me that I wasn't doing the right thing. If only I had listened to my heart!
What God probably wanted me to do with my life is to inspire people through blogging. I had been toying with the idea of running a blog for a number of years and a few days after the 2013 elections, I worked on the idea. Sooner rather than later, my blog was up and running.
The day I launched my blog was a real red-letter day for me. I became so excited that I didn't know whether I was coming or going. You should have seen me that day. I was beaming with joy, a feeling that I believe was God's way of telling me I had discovered my path.
Such kind of feelings we have in our hearts, which I believe is God's way of speaking to us, must be what Prophet Isaiah had in mind when he wrote, "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.'" (Isaiah 30:21)
As a Christian growing conscious of the feelings in my heart, I have come to draw inspiration from the following third verse of the wonderful hymn of faith, "Fight the Good Fight":
Cast care aside, lean on thy Guide;I am firmly convinced that if we can form the habit of listening to our hearts, we will be saved from much of the stress and trouble that plague many people out there. Let us therefore strive to be conscious of how we feel in our hearts. Have a blessed Sunday!
His boundless mercy will provide;
Trust, and thy trusting soul shall prove,
Christ is its life, and Christ its love.
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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above story on listening to the heart, you might also enjoy another one on "Doing What We Were Born to Do" which I wrote a few years ago. Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.
