Until Our Hearts Catch Up

This week, I started attending a class for women who, like me, are trying to make sense of someone else's choices and the reality that our lives will be altered forever because of them. As suspected, I felt old wounds opening immediately, which is exactly why I put off participating in a class like this. At the same time, I heard things that left me thinking, I've heard this dozens of times from countless friends. Why do I feel like I'm hearing it for the first time?

For example, I know that it is not my fault when someone chooses a sinful path. I know that sin makes us stupid and can drive nice men and women to do the unbelievable. But as I sat there hearing, “What happened wasn’t your fault” again, I knew God wanted me to take the words in in a new way. My heart clearly had not gotten the message yet.

This new season of healing from a painful series of events is teaching me that our heads and our hearts have completely separate time lines. No matter how intelligent we are, our hearts can be slow learners. It's like when we recognize that our faith is completely based on head knowledge and long to let God's truth take hold and make a difference in the way we live, think, and approach Him. Today, it hit me how kind God is in allowing us to take something into our heads long before our hearts can grasp what He is trying to tell us. In that time, He sends the message again and again, until we finally wake up and realize, I think I have only been pretending to believe this, but I really do want this to be real for me. Suddenly, we understand what has been holding us back from moving forward.

Is there an area of your life where you are still waiting for your heart to accept what you head already knows? Ask God to help you trust His time line knowing that He reveals each truth that we need at the exact moment we are ready and able to receive it.