by Jenny Arnold
Sometime towards the end of last year I finally purchased an exercise bike for home use. It has been sitting hopefully that I might jump on and get going for quite a while now, and finally, with the advent of this third Lockdown, I have begun a long slow climb towards getting beyond level one and lasting more than five minutes at a time…
Chatting with my son in Thailand, by video call, he suggested that I should play some rock music very loudly to push me on to level 2 and ten minutes…
Now I normally play worship music in the background most of the day but this morning I decided to play some music from my former life and times. Tom Petty came to mind and so, getting astride the machine, I requested that Alexa play the music. A flood of memories of past times came surging back with the sound of his voice, but the lyrics of one song brought this piece of writing to mind.
The title of the song is, ‘It’s only a broken heart;’ and some of the lyrics go along the lines of, ‘I know the place where you keep your feelings, out of the sunshine, down in the valley but I’m not afraid anymore, it’s only a broken heart.’
Before the time when I repented of my sin and acknowledged Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Redeemer, my life was totally messed up. And, before you ask, it remained totally messed up for a number of years afterwards – it wasn’t all plain sailing. As a ‘new’ Christian amongst more mature Christians, I often felt that I must be the only one with a totally messed up, painful and sinful past, and tried to keep these facts, desperate emotions, and painful memories, to myself.
If you are a hurting person reaching out for Jesus during this time to an online Christian outreach, I want you to know that only Jesus will be able to heal those broken areas of your life. But more than that, I want you to know that many followers of Christ have also been broken people, and some still are.
Christians can be daunting, particularly if they are in ‘nice’ Christian marriages with no divorces, no pregnancy terminations, wouldn’t have a clue about street or prescription drug addictions, and have a very nice life thank you very much. Of course, some have but most of us have, as Tom Petty croons, kept our feelings out of the sunshine and down in the valley.
In Isaiah you can read these words: ‘Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government shall rest on His shoulders. His name shall be Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of His ancestor David for all eternity’ (Isaiah 9:6-7).
Have you tried secular counselling and related all your troubles to someone who is probably never really going to understand you because they are not you. Come to Christ because He already knows you completely. God’s Word tells us that He knew us when we were still in our mother’s womb, that He knitted us together, and that there is nothing, no nothing, that is hidden from Him about us – about our present, our past and our future.
So come to Him. Tell Him everything because He already knows and will not judge you as the world (other people) have and do.
Some other lyrics in the song titled, ‘It’s only a broken heart,’ go, ‘’what would I give to start all over again, to clean up my mistakes, stand in the moonlight, stand out under Heaven, wait for an answer…but don’t be afraid, it’s only a broken heart.’
The only answer you need right now in the midst of despair, broken relationships, job loss, addiction, sexual abuse or whatever the unmentionable is, is Jesus Christ. He is the light you need to stand in, He will never leave you nor forsake you when you give your life and heart to Him.
What some may fail to tell you however is this: He will take you most likely on a journey and the road may not be as smooth as you would hope for, and you have to continue on that road when the going gets tough.
I used to have a fridge magnet which read, ‘when the going gets tough, the tough eat chocolate.’ You will need chocolate but more than that you will need true, honest Christian brothers and sisters who will be there for you at 2 in the morning if necessary. Chocolate is better than jelly babies! And you will come across a few of those too… Most of all, you need Jesus – He still heals the broken hearted
God Bless