Trust God with All Your Gut

When I talk to my daughter about making great decisions, I tell her that her head, her heart and her gut all have to agree. In order to make a wise decision, the gut wins regardless.

The head brings reason. It taps into our intellectual resources and helps us logically move through our plans. Its missing piece, however, is it's too literal on its own. It doesn't allow room for faith and discounts the things that don't include our senses. It can talk us out of Truth.

The heart is where love, compassion and kindness  reside. It is what we use to step out of selfishness and into service. It's the thing that helps us make our human connections. Left to its own devices, however, it can ignore warning signs, make us co-dependent and follow blindly.

...And then there's the gut check. This is God's alarm bell. It is the thing that sees clearly, known and unknown. It's where the Spirit resides, connecting the limits of our flesh to the infinite wisdom of God.  It reaches beyond the borders of our intellect and anchors our dreams to solid ground.

I tell my daughter that when these three don't get along or there's a disagreement, the gut is the only vote that truly counts. I know in my own life, EACH time I got into trouble with an action or relationship, there had been something in my GUT telling me to walk away, just before. In these cases, my gut  warned me and my head talked me into it. Each time, my gut tried to signal danger and the desire of my heart pushed through. Invariably, it was then that trouble found me.

In the busyness and pace of our lives it can be difficult to register the warnings, the still small voice of God. Because it's too easy to be swept away, we have to be deliberate in seeking His counsel.  We can get better at doing that, putting it into practice and in so doing, live a life more joyful.