What's Eating You Up Inside?

Last night, the evening before Valentine's Day, I had the joy of sharing a bit of my story with some new friends. It was a mixed group of women including those who were single, divorced, married, with and without children, those who had lost children and probably more stories than I can imagine.

I wore my favorite red high- necked sweater. Over the sweater I wore a beautiful, large crystal-cut heart necklace. Under my sweater, unseen by anyone, I wore a second heart necklace, one of solid metal and inscribed with the words of John 15:13, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

We started by talking about thoughts that came to mind when hearing the words “consume” or “consumed". Answers varied from eating and drinking to living in a “consumer-driven” society where we practices "consumerism" of material goods. I then asked for input about what kinds of things we can be consumed by or that consumes us. The first answer was “fire,” followed by more of an understanding of what I was getting at: all-consuming goals, passions, ideas, anger, fear, etc.

I then pointed to my crystal necklace and talked about the ways we can strive to look beautiful on the outside and reflect a good image to the world around us, just like the facets on this necklace reflect beautiful colors and light. To look at most of us you might think that we “have it all together.” But if I take off my necklace (as I did while saying these words) and hold it off by itself, we can see that all that beauty is just outward and that inside there is nothing there but plain glass. Sometime what we portray to the world is simply a disguise for the fragile emptiness we are feeling inside.

We all have different heartaches. Yours may be longing for someone to love or be loved by. It may be seeking fulfillment in an unfulfilling job. It might be trying to make your body look differently than it does in order to fill that void in you heart. For me it was a combination of infertility and losses, along with chronic health issues, that lead me to the point of desperation and even contemplating suicide. No one could see that lonely emptiness inside, but I knew it was there. I was consumed by the pursuit of motherhood and my feelings of failure as a woman because I couldn't get there. The heartache and grief consumed me every day and I felt abandoned by God because it seemed that He didn't even care.

But thankfully how I may "feel" about God doesn't dictate reality. Lamentations chapter 3 is a long book of heartache about all the things this author suffered. But hidden right in the midst of his complaints, he dramatically shifts gears for a few verses and boldly proclaims, "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail." While I was busy feeling overlooked by Him, He had already been going out of His way to prove the opposite to me.

What is the value of something? It isn't really the cost of an item as much as it is what someone is really willing to pay. There are many things I don't buy because the price tag is higher than I feel the value to be. But God placed the ultimate value on me when He choose to pay the price of His son's life to prove His love for me! Many of us know the verse John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." God made this verse very personal to me in the midst of infertility when I realized that "God so long to call me His daughter that He allowed the death of His only biological son to pay the price of my adoption."

If you are feeling empty and fragile and wondering about God's love for you, He has proved it better than any knight in shining armor ever could. John 15:13 is engraved on this necklace (as I pull the second necklace out of its hiding place and let it rest outside my sweater) and states that "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." Just like this necklace is strong and solid and full of meaning, when I put my hope in God and trust Him at His word even when I don't "feel" Him there, He fills that empty place in my heart with hope.

” Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness…
For men are not cast off
by the Lord forever.
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.“

-Lamentations3:21-23, 3:31-32 (NIV)

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled...

Today is a day where may are celebrating, hearts area abundant and everything is "rosy" for those who have a Valentine to celebrate the day with. But others are feeling disappointment today - someone special has overlooked your desire to be honored with a gift, or even harder there is no "someone special" to even forget.

Whatever you are feeling today, be it the glow and passion of new love, the comfort and security of old love, or a deep heart-longing to be loved, know that I am praying for you today. God knows the hearts and situations behind every eye that will read this blog, and while I cannot pray for you all by name, I know that as I pray for you now, He sees each of your faces with intimacy as the True Lover of your soul. Trust Him with each joy, heartache and detail of your life!

A very talented friend of mine pained a beautiful picture. If you have a Facebook account, be sure and take a look here:
JoyLynn's Tears

It is based on Psalm 56:8
"You number my wanderings;
Put my tears into Your bottle;
Are they not in Your book?"
(New King James Version)

What kind of love not only cares about ever tear we ever shed, but loves us more deeply than we could ever truly comprehend? "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us," (Romans 5:7-8, NIV).

In John 14:27, after He has been crucified, risen from the dead and was preparing to return to Heaven, Jesus encouraged, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." (NIV, emphasis added)

Not as the world gives, in quickly fading flowers and soon forgotten candy. Not as the world gives in broken promises and shattered dreams. Not as the world gives in unfulfilled hopes and unsatisfied expectations. But as only He can offer, I pray peace for your heart today! May this Valentine's be one you remember as beautiful because you are Truly Loved.

What does any of this have to do with inner beauty? "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God," (Ephesians 3:16-19, NIV, emphasis added).