Who knows?

Who knows?

I remember reading Edgar Allen Poe's famous short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart”; “It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire.”

This short story to a point portrays the human heart at its worst. In this one sentence, Poe captures the potential for evil that lurks in every human heart. God's Word in Jeremiah 17:9 states the essence, potential and capacity of the human heart more succinctly, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Only the Creator knows the heart.

We try to fill and tame the heart through education, self-control, freedom, selfdiscovery, self-abuse, art, music, written word, but no person has been able to capture and tame the human heart. The wisest of humans wrote under the instruction of God, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity…for in much wisdom there is much grief and he that grows in knowledge grows in sorrow. (Ecclesiastes 1:2,18) Adam and Eve, knew God face to face, their world was perfect, no neighbors to stir envy, no greed, no sexual perversion, no alarm clock, no work, everything they needed was at their hand. All was peaceful until God provided them (and us) the opportunity to choose. God has always been about right choices and opportunities. Adam and Eve's heart were corrupt, deceitful and desperately wicked. We must understand that Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world, no worries, no stress, a daily conversation with God and yet I am sure that in a time of reflection after they sinned, that they expressed their regret by stating, “It is impossible to say how first the idea entered our brain to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree…” Why do we want what we know we shouldn't have? Why, when we have what we dreamed of, what we yearned for, what we have worked, saved and hoped to accomplish do we wake up one day only to discover the empty feeling is still there? “Who can know the heart?”

What pleasure will fill the void in your heart? What knowledge will quench the unquenchable yearning in your heart for acceptance, love and forgiveness? The Creator can fill the emptiness in your heart. How much more pain will you endure before you let God fill your heart?

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

Who knows? — God knows.

Clayton Adams is pastor at Earle First Assembly of God. You can e- mail him at cpalaa@ yahoo. com, or find Earle First Assembly on Facebook.