The pains of the heart
Cannot be eased with rationale
Cannot be erased by determination
Cannot be forgiven by consciousness
They must be felt
And accepted

The sorrows of the heart
Cannot be comforted outside of ourselves
Not by food, nor drink, nor success
Not even by the love of kin and countrymen
They must be felt
And Accepted

Our emotional body is its own force
It is not the force of our will, nor our mind
It exists unbridled by our character
Even our spirit is another dimension
It cannot be answered by the flesh
Neither by conscious or spirit

And as the truth of my physical hunger
Requires that I eat
And the truth of my spiritual desire
Requires I seek God
So too must the truth of my heart
Be answered in my emotional body

And as I accept the hunger so that I eat
And I accept the desire, so that I seek
So too must I accept the pain and sorrow
That rests deep in my heart
Of all the wounds given to me
Before I can receive the emotional nourishment

I may forgive a man
Within the spirit of my character
And I may forgive a man
Within the choice of my actions
So that I am well with God
And well also with the man

Accepted on those levels
Is righteousness
For we have released our mind
And we have released our spirit
Yet how many of us still struggle at times
Feeling hollow, alone, frozen, or in pain?

These matters of the heart
Blessed they have been to protect us
Yet we are already in pain, and sorrow
Thinking we must be smarter to overcome
Believing we must work harder to heal
And those who harmed us, can’t heal us

Do I go to the man who broke my arm
To fix my broken arm?
Do I suffer in pain for years
Demanding he heal the break he caused?
Do we not instead go to a doctor?
Do we not instead seek immediate help?

So why when a brother offends
Causing heartache and abuse
Do we flee from the pain
And stuff it, control it, rationalize it
Talk it out, work it out, bless it out
Though we still feel what we deny?

Anger and fear are of the mind
And rebellion is of the spirit
But bitterness is of the heart
It is when a feeling is stuck
As pain and hurt and unrest
That we are bitter – which is pride

Let us renounce our desire
To focus on ourselves
Our needs, our wants
And our hurts
And renounce the pride
Of our rejection of our abuser

Let us choose to forgive
Those who caused us to feel
Such horrible pains and hurts
And rejections and abuse
Causing us to feel unwanted
Causing us to feel unworthy

And let us be willing to accept
The emotional pain and consequences
Caused in us by another
So that we unbind the part of our heart
From where it was bound frozen
Even that no light and joy resided there

And by accepting our wound
Are we then ready to seek
The Physician, the Healer
The One who answers the heart
And brings joy, and health and peace to us
As we find goodness even in other parts of us

We never have to crawl before another
Nor as the fool, open the door again to chaos
To forgive is not to forget
But to remember and honour what was learned
For we paid dearly for that
Much longer than most debts

We need not place ourselves in harms way
But the choice is ours to determine
And acceptance of pain isn’t justification
Of the actions and harms of our oppressor
We have not blotted out their responsibility
But we have blotted out our payments of it

We were not meant to pay for sorrow
All the days of our natural life
Nor was it desired for us
That we would be isolated and alone
Neither is it natural to endure abuse
Yet we have, and we can recover

We were meant to be free
In mind, body, spirit and soul
To contemplate the wonders
Of the universe
And discover the beauty
Of all life around us and within

For our hearts were meant to soar
To hold dreams and visions and memory
Of every wonderful and beautiful thing
We ever felt for ourselves and others
For the blessings of this life that do come
And the warmth that fills our entire experience

Which is our soul

And a soul complete – Is love

And LOVE is what GOD is.

Ryan o0o