The Heart of the Matter

There are some Christian contemporary songs that I love, but in terms of the depth of lyrics, I have discovered that there is often more to be found in Christian songs from the late 1970s and 1980s. Debby Boone is an interesting singer in that she started off singing songs with secular lyrics in the late 1970s, and I enjoyed some of it. However, by 1983 she had “switched” to songs with Christian lyrics, and some of them dive very deeply.

One of those songs is “The Heart of the Matter” (1985); here is the link to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECOTRNWSGGo And here are the lyrics:

Old friend
When did it happen?
When did your eyes become dazzled by the world
Instead of lit up by his light?
Choices, too many voices
Was there one too many battles so you gave up on the fight?
Was your love for him a decision of the mind to be changed in time?
Was it really not a committed walk
But rather a display of religious talk?
I need to know because I love you so

Chorus:

If you really knew him the way that I knew him
You would never walk away
If you truly understood what his love was all about
You would never shut him out
All this talk of Jesus working in our lives
Is nothing more than childish chatter
If we don’t allow him past the mind to penetrate with depth
Into the heart of the matter
Into the heart of the matter

Old friend
How did it happen?
How did you take all the life he had
To give and then let your praises die?
Confusion, rising delusion
Did you give your heart to busyness and never question why?
When you discovered that from you
He wanted more, did you close the door?
Did you decide to do it on your own
And then withdraw to walk alone?
I need to know because I love you so

(Repeat chorus)

Bridge:

How do spiritual eyes go blind?
When does deception infiltrate the mind?
I know it’s hard to comprehend
But the choice is still yours old friend
Don’t let it happen

(Repeat chorus)

In “The Heart of the Matter,” Debby is singing to a longtime friend who used to display evidence of being a believer. I counted a dozen questions, starting in the first verse with “When did it happen?” and then immediately identifying what “it” is: “When did your eyes become dazzled by the world instead of lit up by His light?” Whoa. Then notice the fifth question: “Was it really not a committed walk but rather a display of religious talk?” Whoa and whoa. Can you imagine asking someone that in today’s American society?! It would be considered extremely judgmental and offensive by most churchgoers–but notice the next line: “I need to know because I love you so.” She makes it clear that it’s because she loves her “old friend” so much that she is willing to confront him (or her) with these penetrating questions.

When we get to the chorus, we hear “If you knew Him the way that I knew Him, you would never walk away.” Taken in isolation, this might sound very prideful, but in the context of their close relationship and her love for him, it’s not.

In the second verse, Debby asks, “Did you give your heart to busyness and never question why?” I think that speaks very directly not only to her friend, but to so many American Christians. And then, “When you discovered that He wanted more from you [a slight inversion of word order for clarity], did you close the door?” The last three words remind us of “shut Him out” in the chorus. This speaks very directly to people who think being a Christian is simply a matter of “making the decision” and then living however they want. She reminds her friend yet again, “I need to know because I love you so.”

Notice that in the bridge, the penetrating questions continue. She asks how spiritual eyes go blind; then the insightful, deep “When does deception infiltrate the mind?” which paraphrases the question about spiritual eyes. She emphasizes this in the next line with the phrase “hard to comprehend.” All of this harkens back to “confusion, rising delusion” in verse 2, and indirectly to “choices, too many voices” in verse 1. However, the chorus reminds us again and again about “allow[ing] him past the mind to penetrate with depth into the heart of the matter.”

As I was listening to this song yet again and thinking about it, here are some Bible verses that came to mind. Matthew 24:12-13 say, “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” The second one is Matthew 13:22, where Jesus is explaining the parable of the sower. Jesus says, “The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.” In Mark’s account, Jesus adds “desires for other things.” Here’s another one, James 5:19-20: “My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.” The “love of most will grow cold” and the “unfruitful” seed in the parable of the sower indicate people who are unbelievers; the passage in James mentioning someone who has “wander[ed] from the truth” but has come back to it refers to a true believer. In the case of the friend that Debby is singing to, I would hope that he became like the person in the James passage. (I should add that “The Heart of the Matter” was written by Stormie and Michael Omartian.)

Although I have never had a close friend like the one in Debby’s song, I have known several people who have left the church and in some cases have very publicly renounced their supposed faith. Going all the way back to childhood, I have been blessed with good friends. I have six close friends in various parts of the country who, thankfully, have remained true to the Lord. If someday I were to find out that one of them was wandering, I might not use all of the words of this song exactly as they’re written, but I would definitely pray and then confront him in the spirit of James 5:19-20 “because I love him so.”