People tend to cling to the past. We do this because it’s easier to believe that our best days have passed us by, but the truth is that better days are before you. We spend a good deal of energy thinking about the man that made us feel good about the world and good about ourselves. We’re inclined to focus on this person because he touched a part of our souls, and it is possible that no one has been able to move us quite the way that he did. We want to think that this person played all the right notes to make our heart’s sing, but there’s another way we ought to look at it.
There comes a time in a woman’s life when she lays her heart wide open. Sometimes it is because we are naïve about the world, and about how fiercely the enemy will seek to attack us. Other times, it is because we get tired of having our guards up, and we attempt to let them down for a bit. Whatever the case may be, whenever we posture ourselves to take a chance on love—I mean really take a chance, we will attract someone that is willing to leap with us.
Sometimes things end well, and sometimes we discover that leaping into love was not at all as we had hoped. We get our hearts broken, and whether we acknowledge it or not, some part of us gets closed off when this happens. It’s not really all that noticeable until one day we wake up and years have passed us by. The butterfly fluttering, head swooning, giggly-eyed jones that someone touched once is a distant memory, and we don’t feel like that person at all any more.
A little compartment is forged in our minds. In our naïveté, we tell ourselves that we’ll put our bruised self-esteem and trampled hopefulness on reserve. We put it into that little compartment, and as life moves forward we leave it there; forgetting that our minds and hearts can also act as shields. They keep us separated and walled off from things that we really do need in order to be that humbled daughter who expects big things from her Great Big Wonderful Heavenly Father.
Psalms 34:8 (NLT) tells us, “Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!” Anyone that has tasted something ridiculously yummy for the first time will attest to the excitement of not just their taste buds, but also their other senses. This is a very small fraction of what it is to open our mouths like little birdies and receive from Heavenly Father the goodies He wants to give us.
God’s loving power is truly something to behold, because once we experience it we are never the same. I heard someone say, “Well I’m saved, and I love God, but I don’t feel like a different person.” I thought to myself, “Yep, her compartment is closed.” We don’t feel God’s transformative power because we close ourselves off from receiving it.
It’s very easy to remain comfortable where we are, and not take the leap of love. We do this with people, and then we allow it to spill over and rob us of intimacy with God. He tells us in Revelation 3:20 (NLT), “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” He is so patient with us. He stands at the door of our hearts continuing to knock, wanting us to let Him in so that He can restore, heal us, and give us something wonderful.
At one time or another in our lives, we flew out of the nest with faith and took the leap. And when we did, we received a love so tender that it warmed our hearts and touched our souls. It wasn’t because the man was any more special than we are. It was because we, for whatever reasons, let ourselves be loved in that way. If we did it for a mere mortal, we certainly ought to do it for God.■
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
“Leaping into Love”, written by Kim Times, edited by Reverend Fran Mack for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2017. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.