Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their way of life, imitate their faith. — Hebrews‬ ‭13‬:‭7‬

What does it mean to consider a life? To look at the results — the fruit — of a way of living?

There are so many voices now. So many influences pressing in on my mind. Sometimes it feels hard to quiet them long enough to notice what they’re producing.

I’m learning to take stock. To consider the fruit.

Before I put on the podcast, I pause. What do I actually know about this speaker’s life? Do I see love there? Gentleness?

Before I frantically take notes in a sermon, I wonder: does this speaker show the Spirit’s kindness off-stage? Is there humility?

As I try to tend my own heart, I find it harder to casually let in online influences. I don’t know those people. I can’t see the result of their way of life. And yet my heart is strangely undiscerning — it will sometimes give the same weight to a blurb from a stranger on a screen as to the wisdom of a dear friend sitting beside me.

That realization makes me go slower, for my heart is the wellspring of my whole life.

And I find I have to ask the same question about ideas themselves, because beliefs are seeds. They take root quietly and bear fruit in time.

When it comes to a theological belief — maybe one I’ve held my whole life — I have to ask: what grows from this? If this belief settled deep in someone’s bones, what kind of person might it shape? What other beliefs tend to grow from it?

When it comes to civic ideologies — what kind of world does this political idea imagine? Who thrives in it? Who is left carrying the cost?

If the vision were fully realized — not in theory, but in practice — what would happen to the types of people Jesus spent time with? The ones we’re told to care for?

And what kind of heart does it form in me to defend this ideology?

I don’t want to be careless with my mind. Not because I’m afraid — but because formation is happening. Everything I dwell on is shaping me. And from there, it spills outward — into my home, my conversations, my small community.

And I want to be shaped towards Love Himself.