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Having Heart In A Sometimes Heartless World
Day 29
Scripture focus: Come and listen to my counsel. I’ll share my heart with you and make you wise. Proverbs 1:23 NLT
I didn’t recognize the significance of the moment. Late one afternoon, when most young moms are feeding children and helping with homework, my phone rang. A good friend called and asked to visit. It didn’t sound much like a request. We sat in my living room as she told me her story. She was deeply hurt by an authority figure who had deeply disappointed her. Since both of us had the utmost respect for this community leader, it was a crushing blow to find out our leader walked around in the same kind of clay feet the rest of us possessed.
We moaned and groaned and shook our heads. We wrung our hands. We cried. We railed. And then we got up, hugged and went about doing the next right thing. She went home to her family; I continued the evening with mine. I think that’s the evening we moved from friends to sisters.
There was no “counsel” uttered that night – in the traditional sense of the word. We shared hearts. I joined her in the suffering she was willing to share. I don’t think she left with a solution to her heartache, or five principles to pursue. I do believe our hearts grew a bit. What happened?
She told the truth. She didn’t minimize or embellish. I listened to her story without the necessity of playing the part of either judge or jury. Our small community of two made the decision to treasure this experience in our heart, without allowing it to define us or the clay-footed antagonist in this sad tale. We didn’t ignore or obsess over it. We moved on but we didn’t forget. Occasionally in the intervening years we revisited this story (in private) when we stumbled upon a new biblical perspective. We’d take our new-found knowledge and drag it back into the context of this painful moment in history and learn what we could from the re-telling. Today, we are different people because one of us suffered, and the other participated in the suffering vicariously. I think our hearts are a bit stronger. I hope we are both a bit wiser. Arterburn calls this “reframing.” Engelmann describes this as productive suffering. God commands that we do it.
The inner stirring of the heart is a mysterious thing. Spiritual clichés don’t promote wisdom nearly as frequently as spiritual “clingings.” Like the guy in Scott’s story who clung to the bridge. Or the time my friend clung to me while I suffered under the cumbersome weight of justifiable resentment. Or the weeks after my former friend ripped her precious child out of my arms and took him home to an uncertain, unclean, and under-nourished future. Or the young woman who clings to the tenuous hope that one day she too can find her freedom from addiction.
In the heat of suffering we cannot expect to understand the work of the Holy Spirit taking place deep within the recesses of our heart. It’s easy to fall back into the traps of self-reliance, isolation, pity, arrogance, or worse. Perhaps that’s why scripture reminds us that it’s only by faith that we understand how the universe was formed – and our place in the story.
Recommended reading: Exodus 8 and 9 in the morning; Psalm 24 and Proverbs 6 in the evening
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23 TNIV
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