Poker fans probably are still buzzing about Phil Hellmuth's latest televised disaster. If you haven't seen it, we don't want to give away too much. But in the second hand of this NBC Heads-Up Poker segment, Hellmuth thinks out loud about how to answer an all-in challenger -- and does it for so long that his opponent forces the issue.
"My heart is telling me I should ship it all in," Hellmuth tells Annette Obrestad more than once. Interesting words -- since believe it or not, the Bible seems to suggest you go against what your heart tells you to do.
"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" says Jeremiah 17:9. Ecclesiastes 9:3 is even more blunt: "The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live...."
Hmmmm -- on second thought, maybe these verses are not about making decisions by "going with your gut." They're talking more about an overall attitude of life, with hearts producing all sorts of "evil thoughts" as Jesus said in Mark 7:21-22.
Bible writers put the thinking process and the heart together. That's why there are verses such as, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he...." (Proverbs 23:7, KJV) Nowadays, most people refer to the heart as the center of emotion -- with the mind as the base of cognitive thinking.
As NBC's Craig Hummer pointed out, Hellmuth in this case should have put the two areas together. If Hellmuth had put the brain first (as he admits in a post-match interview), he would have folded easily and looked for a better opportunity.
But what all of us need (and this goes for Obrestad as much as Hellmuth) is a new heart. One with all the evils of a sin-filled life removed.
"Create in me a pure heart, O God," David prayed in Psalm 51:10. How does God make that happen? We'll suggest two ways -- by putting your faith in God (Acts 15:9), and allowing the positive example of other believers to refresh you (Philemon 20). Maybe you can come up with others.
Sometimes hearts win poker hands with a flush. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes listening to your "heart" can get you into a disastrous hand (yes, we know from experience). But may your goal be to have a completely changed heart -- as Galatians 4:6 says, changed by God sending "the Spirit of his Son" to dwell there.
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