Tag Archives: broken heart

When there are no suitable answers

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Maybe you saw the news story.

 

A young couple and their baby died in a bizarre road accident when concrete from an overpass fell onto their car, crushing them instantly. The couple were youth pastors in a nearby church. The couple had written a note earlier on the church website:
“We love to laugh. We are passionate about seeing young people discover the love and grace that Jesus abundantly pours out on them.”

 

What sense do you make of such senseless tragedy? What would you say to their families and friends, to those who had accepted Jesus into their lives because of their testimony, or those who are still searching?

 

Would you tell them that God must have been caught unaware, asleep at the wheel?

Would you spout theological answers that this is the result of the fall of man, the train of sin that keeps rolling down the track, taking us all farther than we want to go and costing us more than we want to pay?

Would you talk about suffering that advances the kingdom of God or explain how this is part of God’s divine design?

Would you say that God needed them in heaven or that he was protecting them from some unknown future temptation or prolonged suffering?

 

Or…

 

Would you say nothing at all, but rather sit quietly and cry with them as you hold their hand?

 

The truth is, there are answers to explain why bad things happen to good people. But answers aren’t always what we need. What we need is faith, hope, and love. Love is the one supreme command Jesus gave us: Love God and love others. We need love more than answers. There are things we won’t know for sure until we get to heaven. And even if we could speak such divine revelation, would it really calm the grieving soul? Would answers bind up broken hearts? The language grief understands best is faith expressing itself through love.

 

Faith isn’t fed by answers. Oh, for sure, we want to know! But the essence of our faith is that it believes even when it can’t perceive or understand answers. Faith survives our broken hearts. It supersedes our wounded spirits. Even when we are shocked beyond words, faith believes. No one and no thing can take away our faith, hope, and love, without our consent. When there are no suitable answers to satisfy our minds, these bring us to the heart of God who alone can calm our soul with peace that surpasses understanding.

 

“Faith is simply breathing the breath that God’s grace supplies.” (John MacArthur)

 

Breathe the breath of God and let your faith express itself through love, especially when there are no suitable answers.

 

 

God will heal your heart

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The size of your wounds doesn’t matter… God can restore your soul.

 

We had driven a thousand miles to visit with her. Over the course of a number of days we helped her unpack a lifetime of sorrows, wounds that had festered for most of a lifetime. We read together scripture affirming who she was as a new creation, of forgiveness that was freely offered. But she said wounds – and her sins – were too great…that there was no way God could love someone like her. In the end, she chose to keep her pain. Have you ever known someone like that? Or maybe there was a time you felt that way yourself?

The weight of life sometimes wears so heavily on us that we can’t see anything but our own pain and sorrow. Though we see a helping hand outstretched to us, we somehow can’t believe that hope is possible. When you are well and in a right thinking frame of mind it is ludicrous to remain in a dark place of torture when freedom is a step away. But sometimes the choice to cling to the familiar – even though it hurts – seems easier than stepping out into the sunshine and experiencing peace.

Surgeons know that before they close a wound, they have to make sure it is clear of any debris that might cause an infection. It has to be clean before it can be healed. And yet some people cling to their wounds insisting that it not be touched or cared for. Fearing further pain of having it probed, they prefer to tend to it themselves. And tend to it they do indeed, even as it festers and damages the surrounding tissue. Not properly cared for, the infection will spread until all of life is eaten up. Time will not heal all wounds, especially wounds of the heart.

Regardless of what we have convinced ourselves, no wound is too big for God. Every broken heart can be mended, if you turn it over to His healing hand.

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
Psalm 147:3