The Heart of God

Originally Posted Feb 10, 2012

She’s a little girl who seems to come

from the perfect family, but at home

her parents fight and she cries inside

for the love of a father that’s never shown.

She’s older now and a model student.

She always brings home the perfect grades

and she’s class president.

She’s the perfect child, 
yet no one knows she cries inside.
All she wants is

someone to notice the pain she bears

Years have gone by, she’s a mother now

and her husband's left her. She works

at a diner in town. The church folk come

in every Sunday after church.

They’re so engrossed in discussing that mornings

sermon they fail to notice that behind her smiling facade

she cries inside.

Will anyone notice that beneath the

perfect exterior lies a bleeding battered soul?

A soul desperately seeking for someone, anyone,

to notice.

Jesus is reaching out his hands for her,

and upon his face tears flow for her,

yet no one cares to look deeper.

I recently found this written on a piece of paper as I went through some old papers from my teenage years. As I read it, I could barely stop myself from crying. It reminded me so much of the Woman from the Well.  She (the girl above) was so thirsty, so desperate for someone to notice her pain and take action and yet no one cared to look deeper then the surface. How often do we do this in our lives? Maybe we see the pain but it’s too much of a discomfort to reach out and say something. I know I’m guilty of this and yet Jesus’ heart is bleeding right aside hers and asking that I respond. That I step outside of my comfort zone and DO something.

The girl I wrote about in the above story was never someone I had met or even a particular story I had heard. Instead, it was something that I had observed from the world around me. The stories I heard, the people I saw, the TV shows I watched. People are hurting everywhere you look. They’re thirsty and desperately seeking anything that will quench it, but the only thing that can quench the thirst is Christ. If we’re not taking action and showing the way to the living water then who is?

 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,  “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.  Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.

-John 4:28-38

My heart breaks for women like one above. For the Women at the Well, for Leah, for Tamar, and countless women like them. I’ve gotten to the point where I can’t even read their stories without crying. Life wasn’t kind to these women and it makes my heart hurt for them, but I also rejoice through my tears because I can see how God reached out to each of them individually. How great his love was for these women who were, on so many occasions, forgotten and tossed aside. He was their Prince Charming where life’s Prince Charmings had failed. He loved them so deeply and perfectly that tears threaten every time I think about it.

Now that I catch these glimpses of God’s love and desire for us it physically hurts my heart to see women who are throwing all their hopes and dreams on flawed men who can never live up to what God has to offer.  When women stay with men who hurt and abuse them, whether physically, mentally, or emotionally all I want to do is show them Jesus and how awesome his love is for them. That they are worth so much more.  He is standing there with arms wide open just waiting for them to take notice.

God uses everyone differently and I believe he calls each of us to different things, but I think God must being calling me to these women for my heart to hurt this much over their pain.  The idea of it scares me because I have no idea how he can use me. But I know that as long as I’m pliable in his hands he will use me where he wants. I just need to listen and obey even when I have to step outside of my comfort zone. But hey, some of life’s greatest stories exist outside of our comfort zones!

Today my challenge to anyone who reads this, is not to walk and away and forget what you’ve read but to actively look at what God is doing in your life.  What is he asking you to do? Is it hard and maybe even daunting? Is it outside your comfort zone? Maybe all he’s asking for right now is your time– time spent with him. He can use you best when you’re spending time with him. He may not be touching your heart the same way he’s touching mine, but he is definitely at work in some way, you just have to listen.

"Does Anybody Hear Her"  By Casting Crowns