The Ice is Melting

There are days when my heart is as “Cold as Ice” as 80’s artists Hall & Oates would say.  This has bothered me because the things that should break my heart didn’t.  Real Jesus-like, I know.

My prayer over the last several years is that God would thaw my heart.  That He would break my heart for the people around me and for my city.

The ice is melting.

It’s like God has given me new eyes to see.  And there are days that it crushes me. I can see hurt in others much clearer now.  I see needs that I overlooked before.  I can’t even read the local newspaper anymore without being broken-hearted about what’s going on around me.

My wife and I were engaged in a conversation with a young couple recently.  The gal had gone to church most of her life.  She knew lots about God. But when the topic of God’s grace came up- she broke down.  She had some pretty crummy things done to her and things she had done to herself.  And in all her years of going to church, she had never grasped God’s grace.  The single greatest message we have and somehow- week after week- she didn’t hear this good news at church.  She could however tell us the “to do’s” and “not to do’s” of being a Christian.

My heart broke for her.  What makes me sadder is I can tell she wants to believe it- but thinks its too good to be true.  In reality, nothing can be more true than grace.  God can not love her any more or less than he does right now.  He loves her as she is and not as she should be.  And He has a life of meaning for her beyond the “do’s” and “don’ts”.  She fully comprehends how much she’s blown it. Now all she needs is to believe how much God loves her.  I’m praying for her to believe what she so desperately wants to believe.

On this relational journey, I hope my heart will remain soft and break often for people.  That I not somehow end up jaded, religious, self-righteous, self-centered, judgmental, and frozen.

I’m discovering that the best way to keep the ice from forming on my heart is to do what Jesus said: Love God and people.