Heart Ache is for real - CROSS PURPOSES 118

21/05/2008

Hi Guys

A few weeks ago Rose and Fred were at a Pastors and Wives retreat at Bundanoon. During a sermon on healing the following devotion was distributed. I delight to share it with you and will make one just one comment at the end.


Your Heart Literally Aches

From the end of the earth I call to you, when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Psalm 61:2

I remember that there was a single moment in time when my mind formed the words, “so…this is what heartache is.” I was experiencing an actual sensation in the centre of my chest. Not a pain. No… .. that wasn’t it. I don’t remember fearing for my health. I can only describe it as a ‘hollowness.” Like something had been removed. Like there was air in there where it shouldn’t be. Similar to indigestion, I suppose… but higher. It persisted.
And persists, these years Later. Oh, it has certainly diminished. Slowly. But I have accepted it as part of my physiology. I live with heartache.
I was (and am) surprised by that. I expected that death to change me. My mother and I were unusually close. She died too young. She suffered too long. I expected that death to change my attitude… . my emotions… my perspective. I expected to cry. I expected to miss her. I knew it would change me.. and change the world for me.
But I didn’t expect that it would change me PHYSICALLY… permanently. And yet. I have come to embrace that part of’ me-that heartache. It has become for me a persistent reminder that that love was REAL… and STRONG… and is PERSISTENT. That love, like that loss, has changed me.
Is that what our now glorified Lord thinks as he ponders the marks in his own hands… the hollowness in his own side? “My love has changed me. My love… for YOU.”

Prayer
I rest myself, dear Jesus, in the deep recesses of your love. Amen.
Written by Peter Mead. © 2006 Creative Communications for the Parish (used by permission).

And my comment? We might never know, never have any idea about what is being covered in the hearts of those we meet. Even they might not be able to put it into words. But the pain is real. So let’s commit to grace and mercy and love and compassion. Let’s touch their lives like Jesus might touch their lives.

Bless You

Fred