Wise vs. Wild Contrast #1 – Heart
Heart
What holds first place in her affectionsGirl-Gone-Wild: Christ is peripheral
Girl-Gone-Wise: Christ is central
Girl-Gone-Wild: “Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol; she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.” Proverbs 5:5-6
Girl-Gone-Wise: Her heart has not turned back, nor have her steps departed from your way. Psalm 44:18*
He swept her off her feet. I’m sure you’ve all heard the expression. People use it when a girl gets emotionally overwhelmed and romantically infatuated with a guy. He gains her immediate and unquestioning support, approval, acceptance and love. Like Wanda, the high school senior, who was swept off her feet by the star of the football team. She loved him so much, and was so certain they would have a future together, that she gave up her virginity and self-respect. Their relationship lasted a scant month. Or 44 year-old Tammy – who was swept off her feet by Omar, a new convert with a Muslim upbringing and 20 years her junior. He was an exotic foreigner, with a desire for a green card. She married him weeks after they met; convinced she had met the man of her dreams. Or Amanda, who was swept off her feet and into an affair with a married co-worker.  Or Bridgette, who was swept off her feet and left her husband and teen-aged children for a guy she met on the internet. Or Susan, a lonely widow, who was swept off her feet into bankruptcy by a dashing, elderly gentleman who was just a tad too fond of gambling.
The idiom “swept off her feet” indicates that there is a strong connection between a girl’s heart and her feet. That connection is the first point of contrast between a Girl-Gone-Wild and a Girl-Gone-Wise. A Wise Woman gives the Lord Jesus Christ first place in her heart. Her feet follow the inclination of her heart, so she makes cautious, wise, godly decisions about her relationships with men. A Wild Woman, on the other hand, does not have Christ at the center of her affections. Other things – such as her desire to have a boyfriend or husband, to gain security, or approval, or to have fun – take center stage. Her relationship to Christ is peripheral, shoved off to the side somewhere. The Wild Woman’s feet also follow the inclination of her heart, but since Christ is not at the center of her affections, she makes missteps in her relationship with men. “Her ways wander, and she doesn’t know it.”
The sage father tells his son that he’ll be able to spot a Girl-Gone-Wild by the way she walks. He advises him to check out a woman’s “feet,” “steps,” “path” and “ways.” You and I both know that he’s not being literal here. He’s not telling his son to look to see whether the woman sports a crisp French pedicure or calluses rough as concrete; whether she wears designer heels or hiking boots; whether she prefers swaggering through a barn or strutting down urban pavement; whether she sways her derrière or marches like a commando. Even though a biblical prophet later derides certain women for “mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet” (Isaiah 3:16), it’s obvious that the “walk” that he and the dad are talking about is primarily metaphorical.
Biblical writers used the word “walk” metaphorically to describe the way human life is lived in relation to God. A girl’s walk has to do with the over-riding inclination of her heart. Her walk demonstrates where her loyalty lies. It reveals whether her heart is inclined toward the Lord or toward other things – whether she’s moving toward Him or away from Him, whether she prefers the path of uprightness or the path of wickedness, God’s way or the world’s way – whether she favors being wise or wild. Her walk is her prevailing pattern of behavior. (And this is where mincing and tinkling feet do come into play.)Â Her behavior is the key to determining which way she’s headed. According to the Bible, you can tell the difference between a Wild-Thing and a Wise-Thing by the way she thinks and talks, and all the small, daily decisions she makes. Her small, individual “steps” all add up to reveal the dominant direction of her heart.
If Christ is at the center – if He is the one who has forever swept her off her feet – she tries to make sure that her attitude and speech and conduct is pleasing to Him. Â She seeks to walk in His way. Her eyes are ever toward the Lord. (Psalm 25:15) Her steps increasingly follow His path. She relies on Him to make each footstep secure. (Psalm 40:2) If, on the other hand, Christ is not at the center, then she will walk in her own way; in a way that is “right in her own eyes.” (Proverbs 12:15) She will follow her own desires, turn aside from the straight and narrow, go after things she has no right to, and mess around with sin. (Job 31:7) Her way will be “a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” (Proverbs 14:12)
What if you find the love in your heart growing cold? Jesus gave the believers in Ephesus some advice about what to do to revive their love for Him. Their affection for God had fizzled. They had “abandoned” the love they had at first. So He told them, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.” There are three simple steps to His remedy. Simple as A-B-C.
- [A] Recognize:Â The first step of the remedy is that you recognize your lack of love. “Remember from where you have fallen.” You need to evaluate and be brutally honest about the condition of your heart. Do you love the Lord less than 100%? Do you love anything or anyone more than you love the Lord? Is anything distracting you from your relationship with Him? If so, then your heart is not where it should be.
- [B] Repent: Confess your lack of love to the Lord. Repent of a lack of love and any other known sin. Is there someone you need to forgive? Is there a bad influence you need to forsake? Is there anything that you are doing that you know you shouldn’t be doing? To repent means to turn. It involves a change of intention, belief, plans and actions. If you can’t think of anything that God wants you to repent of, just ask. I’m sure He’ll be happy to tell you. He’s done that for me numerous times. “Dear Lord, please reveal sin” is a prayer I have often prayed for my household and me. He has never failed to answer.
- [C] Revive: “Do the works you did at first.” In order to revive your love, simply do the things you did when you were totally in love… or the things that someone who is smitten with the Lord would normally do. And what things are those? Read your Bible. Pray. Pray with others. Confess sin. Repent. Forgive. Worship. Go to church. Do a Bible Study. Memorize and meditate on His Word. Share the Gospel. Walk by the Spirit. (Does any of this sound familiar?) In my experience, the problem isn’t that women don’t know what to do to revive their love, it’s that they don’t want to put the effort and self-discipline into actually doing so. Reviving love is essentially a Spirit-empowered exercise of the will.
As C.S. Lewis said, “The rule for all of us is perfectly simple. Do not waste time bothering whether you “love”… [just] act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.”
© Mary A. Kassian
This is a pre-publication excerpt from “Girls Gone Wise in a World gone Wild,” © Mary A. Kassian to be published by Moody Publishers in 2010. All rights reserved. You are welcome to link to this post, but please do not copy and/or reproduce this copyrighted material without express written permission of Moody Publishing.
wow!
wise words!
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