Bearing a broken heart

Working in a church you find yourself loving deeply the ones you serve. Their pain becomes yours and vice versa. It’s such an intimate relationship. When I was asked how to overcome a broken heart, it took some pondering on my part.

Hearts can be broken or bruised in many different ways. Relationships go amiss through misunderstanding. People, whom we trust, leave us or become disinterested. Betrayal or abuse can shatter our hearts and psyche. The pain can be so horrific. The loss can be so destructive that our minds replay the devastating events over and over again.

We can do one of two things, and it is totally up to us. We can either become bitter, withdraw, and blown away by the killer tsunamis of destroyed relationships or we can face the darkness head-on and give it over to the grace of God for healing.

Just remember who Jesus said he was the first time he preached publicly in the temple. He unrolled the Isaiah scroll and began reading: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from the darkness for the prisoners.”

Look how Jesus bore his own pain and rejection. Breathing his last few words, nailed to a cross, bleeding and broken, Jesus said: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.” Yep, the first step in the healing process is to forgive.

Then we have to hand over our hearts to be plunged into God’s grace. It only makes sense. Healing our broken hearts has to come from the one who created them in the first place – our God. God created our hearts with a great capacity to love deeply and profoundly – the way he loves us! When our trust is broken, sure it’s going to hurt. It is meant to be painful because it’s not the way it should be.

If we plant our feet firmly on God’s word, grab hold of the strength we have in our Savior, and forgive with all we’ve got, God himself will heal our broken thumpers. We will become more loving with a sincere compassion for others who have been destroyed in the wake of such pain. These are the fruits of trusting our God – the choice is ours. Either we continue on in despair or we soak our sentimental disasters in his grace and become blessed by the love of Christ. Choose the blessing, because that is why faith matters!