A short story for the broken hearted.
By Curtis J Alexander
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There was, many years ago, a young man, who grew up with happily married Christian parents. It was very early on when he developed his own dream of being married to a beautiful godly woman and serving Christ together. Then that dream became reality. Sharing body, soul and spirit with his special woman his wife. He had learned what it was to be a husband and to be one flesh with his wife and to love sacrificially. It took practice as he certainly was not perfect. But he was always eager to grow and flourish and nourish the love.
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And then that dream got smashed. His wife abandoned him and wanted a divorce... for no reason other than her own selfish ambitions.
The heart of the man now found itself riddled with the shards of what was once a beautiful dream. That very same dream became nothing but a complicated set of painful needles digging in every time the heart tried to move. So the solution, in order to avoid pain, became to not desire anymore.
Yet, for a long time. this man who trusted Jesus still had to ask every question - was she ever being real with me? why did she promise and then break her word? Was it something I did wrong? What more could I have done? Was she faking her intimacy with me? All these things were part of the shards of glass... a once beautiful ornament that became jagged and cutting, and dangerously embedded. He had been abandoned not by a girlfriend or a friend, or even a fiance.... but by his very own wife, his own flesh and bone, who had promised to stand by him through all life's challenges. After being abandoned, he found himself stuck on "replay" and trying to make sense of nonsensical abandonment. He had always been true, and always tried to be the best husband he could be. But it was never enough. And now here he was, left alone, and asking questions in his head and replaying everything in his mind's eye. Jesus would be patient with this one, knowing that there would be no "quick fix" on this road of mourning, loss, death of a marriage, and eventual recovery and healing and forgiveness. This healing would be a beautiful journey. And all the man knew how to do was cling to Jesus, and stay obedient to Him. For all his personal weakness, his hand strength was still pretty good, as he would refuse to let go of the Lord.
Only the most skilled spiritual surgeon in the Land could operate on such a damaged yet tender heart. And when the Call went out to that Surgeon, He responded immediately. And as He responded, He assured the man that there would be healing, but it would come in stages. The man would have to be patient as the Surgeon knew He could only draw out one shard at a time.
Eventually, the heart could move again. It could breathe again. And after many lengthy sessions, some quite painful and tear-inducing, the Surgeon from Above had successfully removed every single piece of the broken dream. That Surgeon was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He and the man walked together, and never did Jesus forsake the man.
The man became fixated on the faithfulness of Jesus. He continued to remind himself of the Word that said Jesus would never leave him or forsake him. And he found purpose in the call of God as always.
Then, For a long time, that man became unable to dream personal dreams anymore. But he was healed... thank the Lord. He no longer suffered from endless questions in his mind or from endless replays of what should have/could have happened in the former marriage. And... he was at peace as a single-again Christian. He even found new ability and purpose in leading worship with a piano and in leading other Christian singles to be strong disciples of Christ. He found new purpose in teaching and comforting God's people, especially Christian singles.
He simply did not think about dreaming. Not for a long time. He did not miss it.
He could not imagine a new wife or a different future. But that was ok by him. He just enjoyed working bivocationally, in the call of the Lord and walking daily with Jesus. he had been broken, and then healed. Grace repaired his heart, its scars and cracks were sealed. He was now a whole man, with a whole heart... and where the shards had cut in, there was nothing but lines of grace, like a rich adhesive honey showing where God had repaired the rips. Each line tells a story in the heart. And the main story of the heart is that Jesus heals the broken hearted, and uses that brokenness to produce HUMILITY and LOVE for Jesus and COMPASSION for others who are broken.
It would take courage, and many years, for the man to once again handle a crystal-like dream ... one that is so beautiful and delicate, yet in danger of shattering if given into the wrong hands. Eventually, the heart recovered from the surgery of the Master Surgeon, Jesus, and the heart felt a new freedom... possibly the ability to ... dream again?
-CJA
Sun Jun 30 2019 2:19am EST
