Categories
Life

Wounds

Featured song: Friend Of A Wounded Heart, by Wayne Watson, from his 1987 album Watercolour Ponies.

The pain of aloneness can be unbearable. And anyone who feels truly alone knows the truth of the phrase, “alone in a crowd”. It is more than being apart from people; it is being apart from people even when they are in the same room with you. That feeling of isolation, when you don’t have the connection with others that you need.

It doesn’t matter how or why it happens. It might be your fault, it might be the fault of your friends, it may have no clear cause. But the reality is that you do not know how to fix things, and you do know that the loneliness is so hard to go through.

You try to put a good face on it. You put up walls to make it appear that you don’t care, when inside you feel like you are dying. And the longer you live with it, the more hard your heart becomes, scar tissue that you try to build on to make it hurt less.

Sometimes you know of things you can or should do to fix it, but you feel unable. Sometimes you have tried and tried to fix things, but your efforts failed, or were rejected. And still you are alone.

The presence of a friend who cares for you is what you want, but even in the best of circumstances, this is not guaranteed. That friend is just as flawed as you yourself are, and the failure of a friend may be worse than the lack of a friend in the first place.

How can there be a solution to this problem? The place to start is by not depending on other people. Instead, you need to turn to that friend who truly will never leave you. In Hebrews 13:5b, we are promised by God, “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.” This is a promise that you can be sure of. Jesus will always be there for you, even when every other friend has turned away.

Wayne Watson tells this so well in the song featured today. Listen to it, feel the words, hear the truth of what is said. Ask Him to reach into that wounded heart you carry within you, and touch it with His healing and His love. Ask to have your heart made new.

Smile
Make ’em think you’re happy
Lie
And say that things are fine
And hide
That empty longing that you feel
Don’t ever show it
Just keep your heart
Concealed

Why
Are the days so lonely?
I wonder where
Where can a heart go free?
And who will dry the tears that no one sees?
There must be someone
To share your silent dreams

Caught like a leaf in the wind
Looking for a friend
Where can you turn?
Whisper the words of a prayer
And you’ll find Him there,
Arms open wide
Love in His eyes

Jesus!
He meets you where you are
Oh, Jesus!
He heals your secret scars
All the love you’re longing for
Is Jesus
The friend of a wounded heart

Joy
Comes like the the morning
Hope
Deepens as you grow
And peace,
beyond the reaches of your soul,
Comes blowing through you,
For love has made you whole

Once like a leaf in the wind
Looking for a friend
Where could you turn?
Oh, you spoke the words of a prayer
And you found Him there
Arms open wide
Love in His eyes

Jesus!
He meets you where you are
Oh, Jesus!
He heals your secret scars
All the love you’re longing for
Is Jesus
The friend of a wounded heart…

He meets you where you are
Oh, Jesus!
He heals your secret scars
All the love you’re longing for
All the love that you need
Is Jesus
The friend of a wounded heart

Oh, the friend of a wounded heart
Oh, the friend of a wounded heart
Oh, the friend of a wounded heart
Oh, the friend of a wounded heart

Categories
Life

Hearts and Matters

As I mentioned in my previous post, the emotional heart is a delicate thing, and it can be injured easily. The emotional heart is also something that cannot be quantified; that is, it is difficult to measure a person’s emotional state. I can order a test that shows the function of the heart in electrical terms (the EKG), and a test that shows the function of the heart in physcial terms (the echocardiogram), and I can measure the function of the heart in terms of power and fitness (a stress test). But the state of your emotional heart cannot be measured in any way that I know of. It requires talking, and observing, and spending time with someone.

My own heart can be difficult for others to observe and measure, depending on how good I am at hiding my emotions. However, someone who gets to know me will be able to spend just a short time with me and say, “Okay, what’s the matter? What’s going on with you today?” They are not observing test results to arrive at this conclusion; it is a matter of knowing and paying attention to me.

Bob Bennett, from his 1982 album, Matters Of The Heart, has two songs that look at this topic in various ways. As I read the words, I don’t feel like I get the same impact that I do when I hear it with the music, so be sure to read the words while the song is playing. The way he crafts his song is a reminder to me that the song writers are the poets of our generation. A hundred and fifty years ago, Bennett would possibly been writing poetry for a magazine or to published in book form. In the modern era, the poets find ways to put their works to song, and the result had more impact that the written word alone would have had.

This post actually includes two songs from Bennett’s album. The title song comes first, and then the final song of the album, Heart Of The Matter.

Baby smiling for an unknown reason
Birds singing in the dead of night
Hand reaching out for another one
Breeze catching a falling kite

Sigh at the end of a working day
Sun sinking down in the ocean
Love letters from far away
Rain dancing in motion

You can show me your sales curves
Plot my life on a flow chart
You can show me your sales curves
Plot my life on a flow chart

But there’s just some things that numbers can’t measure
There’s just some things that numbers can’t measure
There’s just some things that numbers can’t measure
In matters of the heart
Matters of the heart
Matters of the heart

Eyes laughing in the face of disaster
Voices bleating on the telephone line
A spark of truth that catches on fire
First taste of the new wine

You can show me your sales curves
Plot my life on a flow chart
You can show me your sales curves
Plot my life on a flow chart
You can show me your sales curves

But there’s just some things that numbers can’t measure
There’s just some things that numbers can’t measure
Oh, oh,
There’s just some things that numbers can’t measure
In matters of the heart
Matters of the heart
Matters of the heart

These matters of the heart
Matters of the heart
Matters of the heart


And now, Heart Of The Matter, which starts with one theme, and then returns to the theme of the previous song.

I’m just a man in a world full of men just like me
With a heart full of question and answers
That seem to be somewhat connected
And a head full of pre-conceived notions
That manage to get in the way

And I find myself longing to return
Back to the place where I started
Back when I knew next to nothing
Back to the heart
Back to the heart of the matter
To the heart of the matter
To the heart of the matter

Hearts
alternate
between tears and a rage
A short journey through the human zoo
In this mortal cage

Words
like weapons
ask no questions as they kill
People
wounded
Once dancing, now they’re standing still

And all these things, I can’t explain
They keep on running, round my brain
Drive me deep, deep to the heart
To the heart of the matter

Lambs
to the slaughter
Well aware of their consequence
Saving (saving)
fallen man
Living and dying in this present tense

So many things I can’t explain, oh
They lose and confuse me, again and again
Drive me deep, deep to the heart
To the heart of the matter
To the heart of the matter
The heart of the matter

A light shining in this heart of darkness
A new beginning and a miracle
Day by day integration, the concrete and the spiritual

You can show me your sales curves
Plot my life on a flow chart
You can count up your converts
And miss where it all starts
You can show me your sales curves

But there’s just some things that numbers can’t measure
These fragile pieces, priceless treasure
There’s just some things that numbers can’t measure
In matters of the heart
Matters of the heart
(A spark of truth that catches on fire)
Matters of the heart
These matters of the heart

Categories
Life

Heart Attack

There are many things that cause damage to a person’s heart. A blocked artery leads to changes that can cause death or disability. A weakened heart muscle can result from one of those arterial blockages, or possibly from a disease that directly affects the heart muscle. In all of these situations, the result is a pump that doesn’t work effectively, and the rest of the body is limited because of this damage. Sometimes that damage is so profound that the only solution is a heart transplant.

We also have an emotional “heart” that can be damaged. We say, “My heart is broken”, referring not to the physical pump in the chest, but to this emotional center that feels like it comes from that area. Most likely it is because emotion and stress indirectly affects the heart rate, and we feel the effect it has on our pump. No matter; the point is, there is this place of emotion that we feel in the chest, and it can hurt without any physical damage being done to the pump.

Bob Ayala, on his 1985 album Rescued, included a song called Heart Of Steel. It specifically deals with the tragedy of sexual abuse, and the effect it can have on an innocent young person. It can result in that person having a “hard” heart, one that they have intentionally closed off from the rest of the world, to attain protection from the pain that those memories cause. Read the words carefully; it shows how God still loves us intensely and personally, regardless of what damage we have suffered in our lives. He wants to come and replace that hard heart with a heart of flesh, and show us His love, real love. Can you hear Him calling to you today?

O dancing dream, O wild flower
You sure can make ’em cry
That kind of walk, that certain smile
Designed for hungry eyes

You say your heart will never be broken
‘Cause you got a heart of steel

You used to live, now you survive
The child of dark affair
Memories: “O daddy please,
O please don’t touch me there!”

Now you use your body like a weapon
Shot from the heart of steel
But a heart too hard to be broken
Is a heart that’s too hard to be healed
‘Till you find a love that’s real
You’ll carry a heart of steel

Blame was too much
Oh the fear and the shame
From the dreadful touch
Helpless child under attack
Well you’re older now
So you fight back
Though you try to forget
Well you find you can’t…

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

O dancing dream, O wild flower
O hear Me if you can
I’ve seen your shame
I’ve engraved your name
Right here upon My hands

So I call your name
Can you hear Me?
Well, give me your heart of steel
‘Cause a heart too hard to be broken
Is a heart that’s too hard to be healed
So give me your heart of steel
I’ll give you a love that’s real

Give you a love
Give you a love
Give you a love that’s real