Harden not your hearts
Hardened hearts. How can we avoid hardened hearts when life is so very difficult at times? How do we lift our eyes above our circumstances and choose not to remain in our natural human state - broken and bleeding?
Betrayal, loss, fear. These are the ingredients for a hardened heart. It's a self-defense mechanism; it puts up walls to try to keep out any further pain. It's our attempt to distance ourselves from that which would completely destroy us, burying us under the weight of things we cannot control.
I don't know how anyone exists in the world without faith. I know many do, I just can't imagine how. If it were not for the fact that I have a refuge, a safe and sure place to hide when my walls of protection fail, which they inevitably will, I would probably have been a statistic long ago. Hardened hearts often lead to desperation and depression, hopelessness.
But for those who have faith, there is another way. And all it really takes from us is letting go, surrendering. Not to other people, not just to circumstances, although it does require that, but rather to our invisible God. How do we surrender to Him? First, we have to believe that there is a God, the God who loves us and cares for us. The God who does truly hold everything in His hands, including the circumstances of our lives and our futures. And we have to want to - let it go, surrender. Most of the time, we don't want to because it goes against our nature of making our walls bigger, deeper, stronger, isolating us more and more from anyone who has the power and potential to cause us more injury, more pain.
When I found myself in that place where I didn't want to let down my walls, where I struggled to trust that it could be different, I chose to "want to want to". I admitted that I didn't want to - surrender, let down my walls and trust, but I wanted to want to. And God can work with that. It's a crack in the walls we've built and an invitation to let Him soften our heart and work the miracles that only He can in our lives.

Betrayal, loss, fear. These are the ingredients for a hardened heart. It's a self-defense mechanism; it puts up walls to try to keep out any further pain. It's our attempt to distance ourselves from that which would completely destroy us, burying us under the weight of things we cannot control.
I don't know how anyone exists in the world without faith. I know many do, I just can't imagine how. If it were not for the fact that I have a refuge, a safe and sure place to hide when my walls of protection fail, which they inevitably will, I would probably have been a statistic long ago. Hardened hearts often lead to desperation and depression, hopelessness.
But for those who have faith, there is another way. And all it really takes from us is letting go, surrendering. Not to other people, not just to circumstances, although it does require that, but rather to our invisible God. How do we surrender to Him? First, we have to believe that there is a God, the God who loves us and cares for us. The God who does truly hold everything in His hands, including the circumstances of our lives and our futures. And we have to want to - let it go, surrender. Most of the time, we don't want to because it goes against our nature of making our walls bigger, deeper, stronger, isolating us more and more from anyone who has the power and potential to cause us more injury, more pain.
When I found myself in that place where I didn't want to let down my walls, where I struggled to trust that it could be different, I chose to "want to want to". I admitted that I didn't want to - surrender, let down my walls and trust, but I wanted to want to. And God can work with that. It's a crack in the walls we've built and an invitation to let Him soften our heart and work the miracles that only He can in our lives.
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