If you ask me, Valentine’s Day could use an overhaul.
It’s a bit tired/dated/overrated.
And everyone knows it lacks… substance.
Flowers, chocolate and overpriced greeting cards are nice and all… but they can’t convey love (or measure it) any more than a heartfelt wedding toast can guarantee a healthy marriage.
If you are happily coupled, Valentine’s Day is – at best – a reminder to celebrate that. But if you’re not, it’s simply SAD.
*Cue Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.*
Either way, Valentine’s Day usually turns out to be a bit of a disappointment. And it sure can’t cure what ails us, deep down.
A sage once wrote:
Hope deferred makes the heart sick… ~ Proverbs 13:12a (NET)
(And everyone’s had it deferred… or dashed altogether.)
But even before that inevitability, we discover in our hearts… distress.
Dis-ease.
We recognize the symptoms (and hate how they make us feel).
Insecure.
Anxious.
Unsettled.
The truth is… there’s a whole lot of heartsick people on this planet.
(I know because I’m one of them.)
There’s no vaccination against heartsickness. No natural immunity.
Somehow, somewhere along the way, we just contract it. Some toxins penetrate, our hearts suffer damage, and we find ourselves in dire need of critical care.
It starts early. A valentine crush turns out to just be… crushing. Bad boys take. Mean girls fake. Lonely nights break our sense of belonging and leave us… just… longing.
The longer we live, the higher the incidence.
Someone who was supposed to protect us, fails. Someone we were sure we could trust, betrays.
People are difficult. (You and me included.) Some are downright cruel.
I don’t know the neuropsychology of all that. But I know this:
Hurt people hurt others. Troubled people trouble others. Broken people break others. Abused people… (well, you know.)
Our world is fraught with danger, darkness: earthquakes, mass shootings, terminal illnesses, animal cruelty, human trafficking, hate crimes. It’s too much to bear. We become much afraid and try to manage (or manipulate) circumstances (or people) to alleviate our symptoms.
But it’s not always outside contaminants that afflict us. Our own constitution is compromised/corrupted/culpable too.
We’re easily bored and wander off to places/people/patterns that are unsafe. We’re prone to self-absorption, impatience, passive aggression. We make ourselves heartsick with our own lousy decisions and foolish pride and bitterness.
Sometimes, upon self-reflection, we’re startled to see that we’re the hurt/troubled/broken/abusive ones.
Where’s the cure for that?
Try as we might – and oh, do we – we can’t cure it ourselves.
Any more than we can cure Alzheimer’s/autism/addiction… or terminal depression.
Ever been in a cardiac care unit? If so, you know you want the best doctor to be yours. A top-tier cardiologist who can accurately diagnose and effectively treat you.
That’s what the whole heartsick lot of us need now.
A brilliant, compassionate heart specialist.
Someone to ease our fears and alleviate our suffering.
Someone to give us hope.
Heal us.
Allow me to give you a referral.
His name is Jesus.
(He’s in network, available, accepting new patients.)
If we’re gutsy enough to be honest, most of us would admit that we desperately search… elsewhere.
We want a different referral.
We prefer our own “second opinion.”
We think if we get a new job, start this program or change that habit, find new friends (or a special “someone”), do/don’t do this or that, move and “start over” elsewhere, that somehow, that will be the thing that cures us. But it turns out, when we do this or that, go here or there… we’re still there.
We can’t outrun ourselves.
Or escape pain.
Heartsickness… is a global pandemic.
The road to healing is one way. (Full disclosure: narrow road.)
Jesus.
He is the Way.
His treatment plan is holistic, yet incomprehensible. He asks us to trust as he administers an exacting dose: mercy to resuscitate us, grace to sustain us.
He pours his love into our hearts, like he poured out his blood.
It’s a miracle drug, that love. And one day, it’ll prove to be the cure-all.
“… I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.” John 14:27 (The Message)
Heartsickness – though it feels excruciating, relentless – is a temporary condition. One day, it’ll be eradicated completely.
That day is coming.
Jesus is coming.
God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever. ~ Revelation 21:3b-4 (NLT)
If you’re feeling heartsick this Valentine’s Day, please reach out to the aforementioned Specialist. He promised to take good care of you.
Get well soon.
Wendy
The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty — it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God. ~ Mother Theresa
Wendy with a Why 