Sometimes I am so vulnerable. This week I felt shipwrecked, spewed out on a lonely coastal rock formation by someone’s words (and lack of them.)

I felt suddenly lost, large parts of me snagged and laid bare to the elements. As I sat assessing the size of the holes, looters came. My joy vanished. Just like that. Lights went out in my heart, disappointment descending like dense fog.

Sometimes we can feel turned aside and forgotten. Unimportant, where once we were cherished. Ignored, where we were previously lovingly attended to. Way down the list, where once we didn’t even have to queue.

Perhaps you know how I feel. Maybe this has happened to you too. Maybe the pain of abandonment or misuse is raw for you right now. Perhaps your heart is broken at this very moment.

But you know what? My advice to you and to me is not to shut down, to protect yourself and refuse to be vulnerable again. Hard though that is to do. I know that will not heal you or make you happy.

Instead, turn yourself over to God in this moment, knowing He never seeks to replace you. He can’t ever break His word or go back on His promise to love you. It’s against His religion.

So, wipe your tears and try again.
Loving is a sometimes such a painful business. But, do you know, even when it breaks me, I’ll do it harder, better, longer, deeper… I refuse to become hardened or bitter. That would play right into the hands of the enemy.
And I live to make sure that I never knowingly do that.
So help me God.