What's in your Heart?

What’s in your Heart? (segue from James 3—the heart that drives the tongue)

Little girls practice drawing hearts, have you ever noticed that?  I am not sure why it is not something boys do . . . but there seems to be a rule against it.  But, whether you are male or female, I should like to invite you to grab a piece of paper, (a good-sized one), and draw a picture that represents your heart.  Did you do that?  Ah, come on … indulge me … this is a good one.  Now, look at the heart—your spiritual/emotional heart--how much of your is cluttered with stuff?  Is your spiritual heart and mind fully functional, or       

>Is it bound up by—guilt over things that make you feel bad about yourself?  If so, shade a little part of the heart on your paper, because your head and heart do not operate at full capacity because you are constantly hearing in your head, ‘yeah, well you failed there….’ ‘you’re never gonna do it right, you’ll never be good enough…’                              

>Is your heart hardened by failure to forgive, or maybe even specific bitternesses?  If so, shade in another little portion of the heart on your paper 

>Is your heart broken, maybe by past pain from people, events, or relationships for which you have never gotten any healing?  Maybe things like child abuse, parental neglect, being the child of an alcoholic, an ugly divorce… If so, shade in, or cut off pieces of your paper heart

>Is your heart taken up with unmet expectations you placed in other people, like maybe your spouse, or your employer, or God?  It leaves you constantly feeling defensive, skeptical of others’ motives, perhaps a little self-centered, and not so free in giving or receiving love . . . yeah, you guessed it, shade in some more of your paper heart.         

>Is your heart consumed with what might have been? or what should have been?  All of these things clutter our hearts; they keep our hearts from being healthy, free to love – to give love and receive love as we should. 

But further, they help us see that we have stuffed things inside of us, left the ‘gardens’ of our hearts ‘untended’ . . . and then we wonder why we are not flourishing.  Here’s another thing—I believe it is the reason so many people are sick, physically sick.  Oh sure, I know medical science has linked stress and sickness, but I believe the unhealthy condition of our emotional/spiritual hearts, including sadness, can also lead to sickness, many times, phantom sicknesses, that doctors just can’t seem to diagnose or explain.

We bury our hurt, sometimes because we just have to get on with life at the time, and somehow do not get back to ‘deal with it’.  But then something happens, and some one or some thing touches that spot, and like a land mine, it explodes!  And we have pieces of ourselves lying all over the place, and it is ugly.        

How about this--take the time to actually put the pen to paper, and consider what might clutter your heart—was it when your girlfriend cheated on you?  (Ouch, did I just say that?)  ‘Still got your paper?  Interview yourself . . . how did it feel?  ‘Man, it hurt so much.  She made me feel so bad, she made me feel like nothing—I didn’t deserve that.’  Then feel it, grieve it.  Give it to God, ask him to heal it—don’t bury it again!  It is time to start to heal, and free up the open spaces of your heart, and get it healthy, and whole again.  

God heals up the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Psalm 147.3.  Why?  Because it is not his will that his children have broken hearts; it is not his plan for us that we would walk around, doing life with one arm tied behind our (proverbial) emotional backs.  He wants us to be healthy—including our emotional/spiritual hearts, maybe most especially those.

All is of grace,

Christine

pastorWoman.com