"And your heart stays where you hide your greatest love"
Matthew 6:21 and a 1970s Contemporary Christian song by Gary Chapman remind us that we need to have our priorities right. Men, when our priorities are out of alignment with God’s word, we find just about every aspect of life and relationships with family, work, etc. out of whack as well.
Chapman’s lyrics go like this:
“They say that where your treasure is,
There will your heart be also
And your heart stays where you hide your greatest love”
The words are taken straight from Matthew 6:21 as Jesus teaches that our true treasure is in heaven. It’s Him.
Where we put our faith and trust is vitally important for today. The turmoil we see in the world around us is due to people having their hearts in the wrong place. They put their faith & trust in people or institutions rather than in God and Christ.
Just look at the three stories from the December 4th podcast The Briefing, by Albert Mohler. He highlights Ireland’s shift from anti-abortion to pro-abortion, the rise of euthanasia in Australia, and the increasing number of millennials who rely more on astrology than their own common sense. Part of Mohler’s discussion focuses on the Irish distrust of the Catholic Church after abuse scandals in the 1990s. Without rehashing 500 years of Protestant history, consider where Catholics put their faith. Yes, there is faith in Christ, but also in the Church and its traditions. In essence, there is faith in Christ blended with faith in a human-flawed institution. Any time our faith and hope is in something dominated by humans, there is a risk that our faith will be rocked when sinful attitudes and actions creep in.
The people who truly are dedicated to the Catholic Church put their faith in the Pope, Cardinals, and local diocese leaders. Faith in the Church and Jesus brings like-minded people together. If those people put their faith in the Church more than Christ; then when the Church leaders act sinfully, that faith is rocked. The people may have their faith rocked so badly that they begin to question how it could be so misplaced. They also may question their faith in Christ, and then fall away from any sense of belief. It's why we see so much "deconversion" today - people's faith is misplaced.
Loss of belief, lack of proper belief, and the like are why we end up with so many people putting their faith in their own efforts, cultic leaders, social justice, or the common bond of humanity rather than God. They are genuinely seeking answers, but no longer trust church leaders to give them the answers they need.