I'm Hurting... But I Must.

What do you do when you've been hurt?

If you're anything like me, you withdraw. Slowly building a wall, thinking to yourself, "Well, now I know how ____ is. I'm not letting that happen again." And, slowly, I become hardened towards that person. And, when there are multiple hurts, the process only continues.

Hurting is hard. Obviously, we all know that. And life is full of hurt. We can't escape it. We may silently build our walls and allow the hardening of our hearts. Or angrily lash out at others, thinking that will protect our hearts.

But it doesn't. The Lord has promised us we will face trouble. Hurt. We will have hard times. Allowing our hearts to harden is not the answer. Because, as hard as we (well, at least it is the case for me) try, the more we push away those we are closest to. Even those that have not done harm.

And, most importantly, we push away the Lord. He wants a deep, personal and intimate relationship with us. We cannot have that while we are building our walls to protect ourselves from being hurt. To love is to open ourselves up to the potential for harm. There is just no way around that. And to love Jesus, we have to also love others.

And there is the hard part. I know. But here's the thing. No matter how often or how much damage a person does, we cannot allow ourselves to become hardened. No matter how much we dislike them. No matter how angry they make us. We are required to love. The thing is, we can't harden our heart towards only one person. It will penetrate our whole heart and effect every relationship we have. That includes our relationship with Jesus.

So, may I encourage you today. Don't allow yourself to become hardened. Love others. And when they hurt you, just remember that as you have been forgiven, forgive. Over and over and over. Your relationship with Jesus is worth it.