Stop Living from Your Head
Why intelligence alone can’t lead you to transformation
“Where do you live?”
It’s a simple question about geography. But let me ask you something deeper: Where are you living from?
We can live from many places. From our pain or our dreams. From our head or our heart. From our fears or our faith. From our wounds or our worship. One of the most critical challenges facing faith-driven people today is living more out of your head rather than your heart.
Considering these two options: Where are you living from?
The Head vs. Heart Tension
We’re in an era where people know a lot. We have access to endless information. We know what to say. And sometimes we might even do good things. But much of it originates from the head rather than the heart. From thought rather than transformation. From analysis rather than intimacy.
Don’t misunderstand me. Living from the head is better than living purely from physical appetites and impulses. But I don’t believe life was meant to be lived predominantly from knowledge. Life was meant to be lived from your whole self, balancing head and heart.
The Brain Isn’t Enough
We live in a golden age of neuroscience. The research is fascinating, the insights remarkable. I’m captivated by brain science too. But life was not designed to be lived from the brain alone.
Just so you know where I’m coming from personally as I write this. I’m not an overly emotional person. I love abstract concepts and influencing others using the Socratic method. As a matter of fact, as part of a cohort that I’m currently in, I took the CliftonStrengths Assessment in the last 60 days.
My most dominant strength was Intellection. Here’s how my report described it.
“You are characterized by your intellectual activity. You are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.”
So I’m writing as a person who truly values strategic thinking. But here’s what troubles me: so many people are valuing brain science over spiritual understanding. They are seeking insight for life from synapses. They believe their brain holds all the answers.
Yes, thoughts matter, neurology is fascinating and thinking is a gift. But we weren’t created to live only from cognitive processing. We were designed to live from your heart.
Heart-to-Heart Living
This is how you truly connect with God and with people. It’s heart to heart, not just head to head.
Living only from your head creates:
Intellectualism without wisdom
Knowledge without understanding
Information without transformation
When we attempt to live predominantly from knowledge, we can get into trouble. We start believing things that sound strategic but miss the point entirely, like the smartest person in the room maxim.
The “Smartest Person in the Room” Fallacy
Take this popular saying: “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you need to leave that room.”
Let’s think this through. If you’re the smartest person, are you too good for that room? Does being the smartest mean you can’t learn anything from anyone else? And if you move to a “smarter” room, should everyone there leave when you arrive?
This is head logic masquerading as wisdom. In a heart-connected community, the goal isn’t to climb ladders of intellectual superiority, it’s to lift each other up.
Now, I understand the principle behind the saying: seek proximity with people who challenge you to grow. That’s biblical and healthy. But notice how head-centered thinking twists this truth into something that sounds profound while missing the heart entirely.
Here’s what heart-centered living looks like: Jesus was always the smartest person in the room. He didn’t leave people behind. He intentionally sought out rooms with broken, messy, struggling people so he could be close to them. He didn’t abandon the room. He transformed it before he left.
That’s the difference between living from your head and living from your heart.
The AI Warning
Without the right balance of head-living and heart-living, AI is going to destroy us. We’ll bow to the algorithm. We’ll trust the machine. We’ll surrender our humanity to computational power.
And when the machine calculates your value and tells you, “You’re worthless,” you’ll have little ability to reject it.
If you live only from your head, you’re not living from the place God designed.
God’s Heart Question
When Adam sinned in the garden, God didn’t lead with intellectual interrogation. He didn’t ask, “Adam, what were you thinking?” or “Adam, explain your theological reasoning for eating the fruit.”
God asked a heart question: “Where are you?”
This wasn’t about geography. It was an invitation back into relationship and connection. God was calling Adam back to the heart-place where intimacy happens. God was calling Adam back to himself.
Living from the Balance
I don’t want to live by intellect alone. I want heart and head in proper balance. Yes, we need our intellect to plan, to problem-solve, to steward life wisely. The mind is God’s magnificent gift to us. But it was never meant to be our only guide.
As someone called to connect with God and others, I want to champion heart-to-heart living.
The head informs. The heart transforms.
The head analyzes. The heart embraces.
The head questions. The heart trusts.
The Question That Changes Everything
So again: Where are you living from?
Are you too much in your head?
Are you intellectualizing your life and calling?
Are you always in your thoughts, rarely in your presence? Processing life but not experiencing it?
Are you refusing to create something that engages with the world because you are seeking perfection?
Or are you intentional about connecting deeply with God and others in authentic and transformative ways?
The choice matters more than you realize.
Where you live from determines how you love, how you connect, and ultimately, how you experience the abundant life Christ offers.
God isn’t looking for the smartest people in the room. He’s looking for people whose hearts are fully His.
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” — Proverbs 4:23