Heart-oriented means life-encompassing. That means that everything about a person, everything they do, say, or wear, tells us about their heart. Think about this the next time you see that person who you think is too…too whatever. Too skinny, heavy, rich, poor, loud, quiet, slow, fast, pretty, dowdy, passive, aggressive, smart, dumb, eloquent, bumbling…whatever. Think about this the next time you see that improperly dressed young lady, that too properly dressed old man, that punk teenager, that urban, hip-hop, twenty-something. What are they telling you about their heart? When someone takes too much or too little, when someone says too much or not enough. What are they really telling you?

Instead of being upset, we should become aware. Listen for their heart. Stop teaching them, stop judging them, stop lecturing them. Start listening. For their heart. They are telling you something. Most often, the more they bother us, the louder they’re crying out.

So the question for you is this: do you love them, do you love God, enough to put aside your cultural or personal values and open up to them? Will you be used by God to access their hearts, through your patient listening and love? Or will you just be another know-it-all Christian with another lecture primed and loaded ready to cram down their throat?
And here’s another question: what does the fact that they bother you say about your heart? What about the way their dressed, the way they speak, the way they do whatever, makes you uncomfortable and what does that say about your heart? Think about that and listen for your own heart. Everything we do flows from our hearts and the Gospel wants to reach our hearts. If the Gospel is going to gain access into our hearts, we’ve got to find out where it isn’t so we can open up our hearts and let it in.