Day 17 - Issue 23
Psalm 34:18 NLT
'The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.'
There are seasons when life appears like one mountain too many to climb. Numbed from experience, emotion presses down the human spirit, and its weight appears too heavy to carry any distance. Loss and grief are associated with such experience, yet there are all manner of reasons why we might feel broken-hearted. Life is increasingly unstable, relationships increasingly disposable, so that we are all more vulnerable to stress-induced cardiomyopathy, the medical descriptor for a broken heart.
While most often described in emotional terms, there is a physical experience that accompanies the broken-hearted. Intense chest pain may accompany the sudden release of stress hormones produced by life experience. Interestingly, over the 18 years caring for Katey, I visited the doctor on three separate occasions with anxieties about my heart. There is a heart condition within my family on my father’s side, my brother suffered a severe heart attack aged just 30, yet I emerged with a clean bill of health. I now know it was the breaking of my heart that was producing these symptoms.
One other sign of a broken heart is shortness of breath. For a year after Katey died, I lived with what felt like a brick wall built upon my chest, and my breathing was very shallow because of the effort and form of pain I experienced, a consequence of grief. The psalmist describes the condition well in speaking of a crushed spirit, for the broken-hearted lose self-confidence and can withdraw from life.
In such seasons of life, times of injury and loss of capacity, it’s reassuring knowing that God is near – somewhat, since nearness doesn’t always bring relief. My daughter began her clubbing days at a small venue ten minutes’ walk from our house. While she was near, I still lay awake anxious for her welfare – spiked drinks, predatory males, random violence. It was reassuring to know she was within easy reach, and yet there was an impenetrable barrier between us. So the broken-hearted are calmed by God’s proximity yet can feel separated by an impenetrable barrier.
QUESTION: Is there anyone you know who is experiencing a broken heart? Pray for them.
PRAYER: Thank you, Father, that when I lose sight of you, you never let go of me.
