Take my heart...

Warning: nerd fest occurring below. Read on at peril of encountering badly explained allegories and random connections.

I like to start off my day with my Christian Pandora station; it helps me ease out of sleep (I am NOT a morning person) into a place of worship where I find myself in awe of God and desiring of His presence. This morning one of the songs which came on was "The Stand" by Hillsong. The chorus prays in wonder, "So what can I say, and what can I do, but offer this heart, oh God, completely to You?" I usually sing that line as a vague submission to His will, but this time I actually listened to the words themselves and the implication of that offering. I don't know how many of you watch the television series Once Upon A Time, but since the beginning of last semester, I haven't been able to get enough of the stories of magic that comes with a price and the notion that true love is powerful enough to break any curse. One of the most intriguing feats of magic, and a regular occurrence on this show, is the ability of anyone who can control magic to actually physically remove the heart of another person without harming them. It works on animals too; in the scene where this concept is first introduced to one of the main characters, she is instructed to take the heart from a completely wild horse (while he is immobilized by other magic, of course). She plunges her hand quickly into the animal's chest, and when she pulls it out she holds a glowing red heart in her hand. The moment the horse is released from the immobilizing spell, he stands perfectly calm beside her as though he had been tame since birth. Okay, so - point one - having someone's heart means that they will submit themselves to you... but the full impact of this didn't really hit me until it happened to a human much later in the series. (Spoiler alert - if you haven't seen Season 2 Episode 8, this is a crucial plot point.) When a villainess steals the heart of the princess Aurora, she is able to infiltrate Aurora's group of heroines long distance, using the heart as a listening device of sorts. More impressively, she speaks to the heart of the princess, and far away where the princess is walking with her friends, Aurora unknowingly speaks the words of the villainess as if they were her own. So, point two - if you have possession of someone's heart, not only do you control them, you have an intimate connection with them, and you can put words into their mouths. (And, as we see later, summon that person to you.) Finally, in one of the most crucial scenes in a later episode, that same villainess tries to take the heart of another heroine, but is unable to because her heart is protected by the true love she has for her son and the true love that her mother has for her. Point three - true love prevents hearts from being stolen.

All right, so I've rambled about one of my favorite shows and made a bunch of random points - where's the connection to morning worship? Let me show you how I allegorize (no, that's not a real word) all of these concepts... God truly loves us. He gave us a free will as human beings, so He refuses to take our hearts without our consent. (Like point three.) However, if we ask Him to take our hearts from us, we are submitting ourselves to Him (point one). As we grow closer to Him and allow Him even more control over our lives, He is able to accomplish His will through us and even speak directly through us (point two). Wow. How awesome is that? "So what can I say, and what can I do, but offer my heart, oh God, completely to You?" This then should be our ultimate goal, our primary desire - that we would give up our lives so completely to God that we become instruments of His will not by force our coercion, but because we have submitted so fully to His power. Because we have given Him our hearts.