A Wounded Heart, Part 1

July 14, 2005

Our life is a story. A rather long and complicated story that has unfolded over time. There are many scenes, large and small, and many “firsts”….

If you stop and think of it, your heart has lived through quite a story thus far. And over the course of that story your heart has learned many things. Some of what you learned is true; much of it is not…

All sorts of damage has been done to your heart over the years, all sorts of terrible things taken in—by sin, by those who should have known better, and by our Enemy, who seeks to steal, kill and destroy the image bearers of God….things may look fine on the outside, but inside it’s another story…

Our deepest convictions—the ones that really shape our lives—they are down there somewhere in the depths of our hearts. You see, we don’t really develop our core convictions so much as they develop within us, when we are young. Down deep, in the inmost parts they form, down in deep water, like the shifting of the continental plates. Certainly, we’d reject the more disabling beliefs if we could; but they form when we are vulnerable, without our really knowing it, like a handprint in wet cement, and over time the cement hardens and there you have it.

Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive by John Eldredge.

Eldredge goes on to ask the question: “What have you believed about your heart over the years?”

August 2, 1978. I was 3. My sister (age 2), brother (age 8 months) and I were at our aunt and uncle’s house, playing with our cousins.

My first memory of that day (and in fact, this is the first memory of my life) is of my aunt going in to her bedroom where my brother was napping. It was time for him to wake up.

I remember her calling his name, quietly at first, “Daniel…Daniel…wake up Daniel…” but growing more and more frantic until she was screaming, ”
Daniel?…Daniel?…Daniel!…Daniel!!!”

I had been playing nearby, but ran into the room where she was when I sensed the overwhelming fear in her voice. Clearly something was terribly wrong.

My heart was about to be wounded. I had no idea how much it would shape the rest of my life…

Read Part 2 here.

Category: Deep Thoughts

Comments

One Response to “A Wounded Heart, Part 1”

  1. withpurpose » Blog Archive » SIDS Prevention
    August 27th, 2008 @ 6:08 am

    [...] Parenting, Pregnancy & Babies I had a brother who died of SIDS when I was 3 years old (he was 8 months old when he died).  The day of his death is my earliest [...]

Leave a Reply