Valentines and Broken Hearts

¹² Yet even now, says the Lord,
   return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
¹³   rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
   for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
   and relents from punishing.
¹⁴ Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
   and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain-offering and a drink-offering
   for the Lord, your God? 
Joel 2:12-14

Broken Hearts seemed an appropriate theme for Valentine’s Day. How many of us have been broken hearted on Valentine’s Day?  Lots of people!  I saw a tweet yesterday that read, “I’m giving up Valentines for Lent!” Perhaps Valentine’s Day presents such problems for us, because the advertising industry has convinced us what the day should include--candy, cards, flowers and jewelry!  With such a romantic ideal, of course broken hearts will result! In the passage from Joel, God is encouraging the people to “return to me with all your heart…. rend your hearts and not your clothing.” Rending is about our hearts being broken so that God can enter into them. Several years ago I went on a Walk to Emmaus retreat. Over the first twenty-four hours, I was having a hard time listening and really opening myself to the movement of God. Then, I got a phone call.. You know it has to be an emergency if they let you take a phone call as a pilgrim at Emmaus!  My husband, Ron, was calling to tell me that one of my co-workers had been killed in an auto accident. She was a young woman, with young children and a husband. She was someone whom I had loved.  My heart was broken. Because of my grief, my heart was broken wide open, and I let God in. God’s love and mercy and grace flooded in because my heart was broken. Our hearts get broken in a myriad of ways from a bad break up in a relationship to the death of someone we love. When our hearts our broken, sometimes it makes a way for God to come in.  However, the opposite can happen as well.  When our hearts our broken open, we can allow them to fill with anger and resentment. Rending our hearts is about allowing God in instead of allowing our hearts to harden with bitterness. Whatever the brokenness in our lives, God wants to redeem it. God invites us to rend our hearts and return to the God who loves us. So, I invite you to a Holy Lent—a time of heart-rending and a time to allow God to break open our hearts that we might know the movement of God’s Spirit in our lives! How is your heart today? Is it hardened? Or Is it being broken open so that God’s Spirit can enter in new ways?

Prayer: Gracious God of broken hearted souls, move in my heart this day that I may feel Your Spirit drawing me ever closer to you. Amen. .