Life can offer crushing blows to us that we never saw coming. Life as we know it is shattered in pieces. We are left in a stand still, not knowing how to move forward. It can leave us in a place where we ask ourselves the question, “Will my heart ever beat again?”
These same feelings my friend Peggy can relate to all too well. Her old life with her husband had been shattered after his betrayal. She had built a life with him, but was now unexpectedly heading down the path of divorce. She was at cross-roads, the intersection behind despair and hope. She needed a new path, a new direction in the middle of her brokenness.
The song “Tell Your Heart to Beat Again” helped her heal from the divorce from her husband. She prayed, and turned to Jesus, letting him be the author of her story. He gave her a new passion to step into His amazing grace and spread his love to the world. She is sponsoring children across the globe, but most of all, takes the opportunity to share God’s love to everyone she meets. She is a testimony of a heart that is changed and transformed by the redemptive power of God.
The apostle Paul, like Peggy, knew what it meant to be betrayed. Paul had a friend named Demas who worked with him in spreading the gospel and stood beside him throughout his first imprisonment in Rome. In his second imprisonment to Rome, Paul writes, “Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica (2 Timothy 4:10).” This betrayal was just another one of the hardships he had endured in following Christ. He was beaten, flogged, stoned, shipwrecked. But betrayal,could he overcome this?
Paul’s response to this betrayal was the same response to every hardship he ever faced in his life. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 4:6-7, written a few verses before the announcement of Demas’ betrayal,
“ For I am being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” This response was to keep moving forward in giving his life away to God and His people. As Paul faced his final days on earth, he was able to stand in the joy he had taken his place in God’s big story.
Just like Peggy and Paul, we can take our place in God’s big story today. Our hearts can beat again once more as we discover the joy of pouring our lives away to God and His people. It does not mean that we lose ourselves in service, we don’t allow God to be the Healer of our hearts. It means in the middle of our healing, we find life’s true purpose and calling. Our hearts will beat again, my friends.
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