Secrets of the Heart
The 2021 Ferrari Roma is Ferrari’s entry-level car, but its exhaust system is the product of more engineering attention than most entire cars get. Here’s why: there are no silencers in the exhaust. The only muffling happens far upstream, with the natural sound-muting properties of turbos (the Roma has two of those). Deflection and sound absorption are handled by gas particulate filters, and everything else is just good old-fashioned acoustic engineering through pipe length and diameters. Yes, the tail end of a Ferrari Roma is basically a pipe organ.
Now before you try bolting a 2021 Ferrari Roma exhaust system onto your 1982 Chevrolet Cavalier, think about all that goes into exhaust sound besides the exhaust system. The biggest variable is the heart of the car: the engine. Cylinder count, engine configuration, displacement, cylinder firing order, and timing are just a few of the variables, and oh what gigantic variables they are.
Nevertheless, automakers are getting scary good at exhaust wizardry. They can’t completely cheat physics, but it’s getting harder to know what’s under the hood unless you know what’s under the hood.
People are the same way, but even more complex. It’s hard to know a person’s heart. So when you feel inadequate next to someone else’s accomplishments, or shy next to someone else’s confidence, or dirty next to someone else’s piety, or disordered next to someone else’s self-discipline, you might be participating in that time-honored human tradition of comparing your insides to someone else’s outsides. You may be comparing your engine to someone else’s exhaust.
God sees through all of this. He sees the posturing, impression managing, and self-aggrandizing. He sees the compliment fishing, gaslighting, and popularity chasing. He sees you, terrified by all the phony behavior around you, and wondering if anyone would like you if they saw the real you.
So he inspired an ancient writer to record these words toward the end of the book of Proverbs:
“As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man.” (Proverbs 27:19)
No one can run away from their identity, and a person’s identity is written in their heart. When you feel pressure to disguise, hide, or modify what’s in your heart, you may be letting fear shape the identity God gave you. Your heart was given to you by God. Keep it and protect it, because it reflects 100% of the true you and a little bit of God:
“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)
Perhaps God has placed you in the life of someone who’s also hurting and looking for authenticity. Who knows – maybe that describes all those people you know who seem so intent on hiding their feelings. Being that intentionally vulnerable is a little scary, so start small. Guard your heart by opening it up to God. He already knows what’s inside, and he wants you to explore it under his protection. He made you, he loves you, and he wants you to see how your beautifully engineered heart can reflect his character.
Ferrari’s other entry-level car is the Portofino, essentially a convertible version of the Roma. Yet the Roma makes 19 more horsepower, has shorter lower gear ratios, and is a touch wider and longer. Both have a 612-horsepower 3.9-liter twin-turbo V8 with a flat-plane crank, mounted mid-front for a nearly perfect 50/50 weight distribution. They may not look exactly the same or perform exactly the same, but they’re like humans; their hearts actually have a lot in common.
