It's a heart issue

Have you ever experienced a moment in your life where someone captured words that expressed exactly how you were feeling? That happened to me so unexpectedly last night. On the eve of a day that celebrates love, friendship, and happiness. I ran smack dab into something I've been trying to grasp for sometime now.

The heart.

All it's detail, mystery, and empty parts - why is it so hard to define all the feelings that come from this essential part of our bodies? God obviously had many reasons why this organ was to be so important, not only to our survival, but to the core of our being. I wrote in my journal a few months ago that sometimes I think that I FEEL too much. Empathy is at the top of my character chart, they are telling me in a new study I just took on finding our strengths. The funny thing is that I always thought of empathy as a weakness - for that very reason, "feeling too much." And in feeling too much I feel unable to use the wings he's given me to fly - and instead I sit with wings bound watching and waiting for my moment to soar.

Is that how Jesus felt? Overwhelmed by all the hurt and brokenness around him; too unstable to move a square inch because it hurt too much? No, he moved with grace, confidence and complete empathy for those he met (and those he didn't).

It's amazing how one slight shift in perspective brings us back to what's real - God's love, and God's heart. It never fails us, it never leaves us hanging wondering if He cares about us. I am finding that Satan uses confusion, miscommunication, basically the unknown in our minds to bring dissention among us causing us to stumble and stay on the ground.

This is where I struggle. Why? Because I am a people pleaser through and through. If I feel a cord is broken between me and a friend it kills me to the core because I cannot control their reactions to me. But I am reminded that God gave us relationships as a privilege and not as a right. But he made us relational people - and that we function best as a body of believers if we are of sound mind and body. God speaks it so much better than I ever could, and this is what He says:

"be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor, giving preference to one another" (Rom. 12:10)
"be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tender-hearted, be courteous" (1 Peter 3:8)

Did you know that the Bible refers to the "heart" 876 times? God knew we would need instruction on this important tool, otherwise why would He mention it so much in His word? I just wish sometimes we had a book to refer to, like "a guide to using our hearts for dummies" or "learning to fly again is easier than you think," or something like that!

I think that once we surrender our hearts to our Father and creator, we gain a new freedom to trust those who maybe broke our hearts in the past, or let us down. We can't control how others treat our hearts, but we can trust He that controls our future and has our hearts in His hands. Did you know He sings over you? What would that song sound like...

I want you, if you've waded this far through my lengthy blog post, to check out the article that I read last night that summed up what God has been whispering to me for quite sometime. I warn you though, you will be blessed, and maybe faced with a truth that will unexpectedly enrapture your heart. Check it out here.