Love Hurts

There's been a lot on my mind lately. Questions that aren't always answered, thoughts floating around, answers coming slowly out of the fog. A 13 year-old friend of a friend that died in a car accident. A dream that made me re-visit the memories of a family friend's newborn baby going to heaven too soon. Feeling God's overwhelming love. Seeing tragedy in the world, in Japan. Hearing my Aunt's story of two babies saved outside the Planned Parenthood this morning. God's love will conquer. Lord, make beauty out of these ashes.

 __________________________________________________________

What is our heart? When we’re happy we say our heart is full. When something bad happens, we say our heart hurts. When we get hurt by someone, we say its broken.

Can we break our heart? Part of me is inclined to think when we use that, we really just have mental issues. If we magically had a switch, that turned off our brain or our thought process, would we still end up with pieces? If we convinced ourselves that nothing was really the matter, would our heart still hurt?

Solomon told us to “Keep our heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” Is he really telling us to guard our mind? Our thoughts? Our feelings? 

The same word used for heart here was commonly used for the feelings. The Strong’s Concordance also describes it as the inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding. The inner part, or the midst of things. I’d say he’s talking about our mind here.

But, I think there’s a part of us, our feelings, our inner part, that’s disconnected from our minds. Sometimes my heart does ache, sometimes even when my mind can’t make sense of things, it hurts.

Honestly, I think broken “hearts” are a part of life. This earth isn’t perfect, and bad things happen. If we are attempting to love imperfect people with a perfect un-ending love, we’re bound to end up with pieces.

God want's our hearts, and we can’t be afraid of being broken. Do you think Jesus’ heart was all in one beautiful piece while He was hanging on the cross for Love?

It hurts to love someone. Jesus knows. I’m not sure any of us could hurt more than He did and has, and does. Sometimes that love breaks us, sometimes it hurts us, sometimes it aches. Sometimes we wonder why? Why does it have to be this way? It’s not fair.

But it’s worth it. It’s the only way. The alternative is a whole heart, but an empty one. You can’t fill something that that doesn’t have an opening. Love is the only way our world, our hearts, our minds can be healed. Love is the only way, even if it hurts.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” {Romans 8:38-39}

{Another post originally written for the Red Ink Challenge}