Healing the hammered heart
Mar 8th, 2008 by spaceagesage
Not everyone likes John Eldredge. Author of the popular book Wild at Heart, Eldredge takes modern Christians to task for being duty-bound drudges going through the motions of rule-keeping and blandly just being “nice,” as if that is all Christ wants us to be. Instead, the author advocates living from a heart that is wildly passionate and powerful, a heart so fired up and robust that it ignites those around it with genuine love and enthusiasm.
In another of his books, Eldredge wrote a passage that leapt off the page and into my heart a few months back. The book is Waking the Dead. This is the passage:
“Then it was if the gaze of Christ had turned on me … and what he said was, ‘It’s true, John. You know you are very hard on your heart. You are not merciful with those broken places within you’.”
That last line shook me to the core of my being.
I had tried to use tomboy toughness in my youth and martial arts roughness in my adult years to heal the broken places within me. It was like using a hammer to heal a wounded heart. I suppose other people might use addictions (self-medication) or distance-keeping manipulation of others in a similar attempt to protect the heart. We all have our defenses against feeling vulnerable.
The result of my attempts to protect the heart, however, turned it stiff and rigid, imprisoning my heart more, not less, as the hammering just created thicker scar tissue. I know some people think deep emotional issues need cleaning out with a wire scrub brush and alcohol, but I realized from Eldredge’s words that the heart can only be healed with true gentleness and real love.