If you were to remove your blinders and poke your head out of the cocoon of cluelessness that obscures your view of reality, you would discover that human beings are mostly terrible.

There are a few examples of kindness, generosity, patience, humility, compassion, and some other virtuous behaviors. These are the people you’re thinking about when you (and Virginia Woolf) proclaim the rightness of trusting your heart to guide you. In your woeful whimsical worldview, human hearts only produce goodness.

In your cocoon of cluelessness there are no villains but out here in reality, we’re up to our eyeballs in wickedness. Almost everywhere you look you’ll find dishonesty, violence, selfishness, abuse, and injustice. Do you know where all that evil comes from?

Take a guess…

It comes from the heart! Surprise!! That same heart that you think will guide you to righteousness is the source of all corruption and rot. War, slavery, murder, white supremacy, greed, and whatever else you want to add to the list — it all comes from the heart.

Now that you know, you have two options. Either scamper back to the safety of denial and pretend you’re somehow different from the awful people you criticize; OR give your heart to Jesus. (And don’t trust your heart to tell you the best option.)

(Matthew 15:19) “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.’ ”