Keeping Our Hearts

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” - Proverbs 4:23

“Boundaries define us. They define what is me and what is not me. A boundary shows me where I end and someone else begins, leading me to a sense of ownership. Knowing what I am to own and take responsibility for gives me freedom. Taking responsibility for my life opens up many different options. Boundaries help us keep the good in and the bad out. Setting boundaries inevitably involves taking responsibility for your choices. You are the one who makes them. You are the one who must live with their consequences.” – Cloud and Townsend

“For from it flow the springs” is one word in Hebrew: towtsa’ah. Which is mysterious, because the vast majority of the other 23 times it’s used in the old testament, it appears in verses like this:

“And your border shall turn south of the ascent of Akrabbim, and cross to Zin, and its limit shall be south of Kadesh-barnea. Then it shall go on to Hazar-addar, and pass along to Azmon” (Numbers 34:4).

Spot it? Yeah, hardly. There it’s translated “and its limit.” With only three exceptions, towtsa’ah is used exclusively in describing boundary lines, throughout Numbers, Joshua, and 1 Chronicles. It can mean “the place from which anything goes forth”—the other two exceptions are translated “deliverance” (Psalm 68:20) and “exits” (Ezekiel 48:30)—but that’s not how it usually appears.

Which lends a strange kind of sense to two other words in this verse. “Vigilance” is the Hebrew mishmar, which actually means “prison.” “Keep” is the Hebrew natsar, which means “watchman.” This verse is not saying “keep” as in how you “keep” food in your pantry or a pet in your house, but “keep” as in how you “keep” a watchman on the city walls or a guard at the prison door. What’s the difference? You realize the centrality, the high value, of what you guard: your inner self is the place from which everything issues, your speech (Matthew 15:18), behavior (Jeremiah 17:10), outward appearance (1 Peter 3:4), physical health (Proverbs 17:22). If you picture your life as many streams, the imagery here is that they all come from a single source: if your inner life is not healthy, it may affect even a seemingly-unrelated area of your downstream life.

You also realize the fragility or volatility of what you guard: its tendency to be easily influenced, or stray off-center. And so we have to know where the boundary lines fall. Freedom, this verse suggests, the freedom of true life, comes not from lack of boundaries, but drawing the right ones. We must examine our inner lives and know what to let in, what to keep out. This may mean being intentional in the choices we make about media we consume, or relationships we have. It may mean following a rule of life in how we arrange the rhythm of our days, weeks, or months. It may mean pursuing life-giving leisure instead of mindless entertainment. It may mean getting more sleep. Any number of things. Where are your boundaries, and how do you live them out?