The Sound a Breaking Heart Makes
Have you ever sat listening to a heart break? Slowly, slowly, day by day each ideal is shattered, the laughter goes out of the eyes and the joy disappears from the soul.
Have you ever noticed it happening inside yourself? Little by little, views harden and sharpen, cynicism and bitterness creeps in and ahead of us is full of despair and pointlessness.
Hearts are breaking all around us – it’s not just about love and romance but about life, hopes and dreams and their conflicts with reality. Now reality has a way of bring us down to earth with a bump, and sometimes several thumps as well. Ouch!
Despair is a difficult place to live in, as is hopelessness and waking nights. So what to do instead? Options vary from giving up on caring, refusing to give up and continuing to live in a continuous loop, walking away and lastly trying to make a difference.
Making a difference to reality isn’t impossible. After all, I am a part of that reality my behaviours and actions are shaping it. Every choice I make affects me and in some way my world. For great cases, I will labour on and try method after method to make a difference – this I will do for causes that concern God. I will struggle on for Him and humanitarian causes such as poverty, social justice and to help heal hurting hearts. These I consider worth the frustration and pain.
For others I will walk away or draw a boundary line. For me the difference is a matter of scale, the one to many, the here and now to eternity, the closeness to the purpose of my life. A broken heart is hard to mend, much better to call a halt and rest, think and pray before rushing on and slipping into a spiral of bitter despair. Much better to pause and pray and switch to climbing a ladder of hope.
Look up into the heavens.
Who created all the stars?
He brings them out like an army, one after another,
calling each by its name.
Because of his great power and incomparable strength,
not a single one is missing.
O Jacob, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles?
O Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights?
Have you never heard?
Have you never understood?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of all the earth.
He never grows weak or weary.
No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
He gives power to the weak
and strength to the powerless.
Even youths will become weak and tired,
and young men will fall in exhaustion.
But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40: 26-31 (NLT)