Kirkepiscatoid

From all false doctrine, heresy, and schism; from hardness
of heart, and contempt of thy Word and commandment,
Good Lord, deliver us.

Oooo. This one might be the part of the litany which connects me the least...at least all but the “hardness of heart.” So I’ll stick to the “hardness of heart” part and see if I can’t work my way into the rest.

Well, I always think about in Exodus, when Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. What did that mean?

Mostly, I think it meant “He wasn’t listening to the little voice inside of him that tells us what’s right.”

I am a fairly stubborn creature. Sometimes my stubbornness is used for good, but sometimes it is also a barrier to that little voice. When I am not listening to my own small still voice, I am not absorbing well what God is trying to tell me in my disciplines of study and prayer. I rush to “get them over” and don’t think about them. I am not following the doctrine of my own heart. I am participating in “schism between me and God”, which some days, is a tenuous enough connection as it is. I am being a heretic to myself.

All because I smother my inner voice sometimes.