In 2 Corinthians 4:16 Paul writes: ”we do not lose heart.” Someone who says or writes “We do not lose heart” more than likely has come close to losing heart.
Have you, or someone you know, ever come close to losing heart? What were the circumstances? What prevented you or them from losing heart?
There’s nothing like a happy ending or good news to rescue a heart, but how do you protect your heart in a healthy way when there is no happy ending or good news? What are some unhealthy ways we try to protect our hearts? Or, what if the way we protect our heart when we were a child no longer works now that we are an adult?
This is all intensely personal, but perhaps you would like to share your story. The title of my sermon this Sunday is “We Do Not Lose Heart.” Perhaps Wedgewoodians and others would benefit from hearing your story. Perhaps it would help you to share you story. I invite you to share you story below.
May God keep your heart.
2 Corinthians
4:16 So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.
4:17 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure,
4:18 because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
5:1 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Creation Story
Then the Lord God took Jim deMaine and put him on the earth to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded Jim, saying, “Of every knowledge of the earth you may freely observe but if you deem any of this good or evil, you will die in your judgement.
And the Lord God said, “It is not good that Jim should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Jim to see what he would call them. He called them cool and awesome and beautiful. But for Jim these animals grew boring and mundane. Jims life was dying, because there was no passion in his knowledges of animals, and history, and technology, and sports, and science, and math, and art and many other knowledges that the Lord had given him.
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Jim, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from Jim He made into a heart, and He brought it unto Jim.
And Jim said
“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called my Heart,
Because she was taken out of me.”
Therefore Jim and his life of knowledges was joined to his heart, and they became one flesh.
And they were both innocent, the man and his heart, and were not ashamed.
This was the beginning of real life for Jim. As Jim realizes that the best way to protect his heart is to exercise it, he is less and less worried about losing his heart. His words and actions have both passion and truth in them. As Jim realizes that the Lord created her to be a helper to him, he also finds himself more willing to submit to her love. She (his heart) has a deeper connection to the Lord than he does alone. All of the knowledge that the Lord has given Jim is empty without her.. Together, the love of his heart and the wisdom of his mind are truly a living soul. The health of this soul depends on the heart and the mind working in unison. I think that as we become adults we become more aware of the importance of a union between the two, heart and mind. The Lord has a purpose in dividing the two when we are children, and I think that the purpose is giving us the ability to learn how each of them works, in hopes that they can work together.
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I come close to it often. I am queer, and living in a world that despises me and all my LGBT siblings is hard to bear. All I can say is that I go because there is no other choice. I go on, and I go on, because the only alternative to this cruel war waged against us is death. I won’t let this hate break me. I won’t fall silent. Because I’m not just fighting for myself. I’m fighting for my brothers and sisters. Every person I can convince to question their homophobia is one less person who will harm them. Every time I speak of living as a queer woman, I let them know that they are not alone. And if I can save one life, just one, all the hurt I’ve borne will be worth it.