Bagpipe Heart

(The Afrikaans word for "bagpipe" is "doedelsak", literally meaning tune/ditty-bag).

Years ago, I wrote a devotion as part of a series on Soul Care. A colleague and mentor, Calvin Cook, responded to it. Here's what I wrote in response...  

Picking up on Henry Drummond's quote of the heart being an elastic chamber that expands with God in it or shrinks without Him, my friend Calvin suggested that we have the choice between being vuvuzelas (i.e. noisy trumpets, used at sports events) or bagpipes. The key difference is not in the mono-tone of the one compared to the variety of the other, but in the bag, which when filled, allows the piper to play a much longer note than the human lung can blow the vuvuzela!

Isaiah records God's Word to those who think they can keep going in their own strength. The bottom line? In the Rat Race, the rats win.

In repentance, rest, quietness, and trust is salvation and strength.

Soul-care means we fill the "sak" (bag) of the "doedel" (tune or ditty) with the breath of God. (I just think the Afrikaans word is so descriptive).

The old hymn says it best:

Breathe on Me, Breath of God,

Breathe on me, breath of God.

Fill me with life anew,

That I may love what Thou dost love,

And do what Thou wouldst do.

Breathe on me, breath of God,

Until my heart is pure,

Until with Thee I will one will,

To do and to endure.

Breathe on me, breath of God,

Blend all my soul with Thine,

Until this earthly part of me

Glows with Thy fire divine.

Breathe on me, breath of God,

So shall I never die,

But live with Thee the perfect life

Of Thine eternity.

(Edwin Hatch 1878)