31 July 2007 Devotion for Today “Living With a Hole in Your Heart” I John 4:4
This past year I think I have had to change and fix four- maybe five flat tires in our driveway. We have three vehicles, (I have two teenagers who are driving now, and another will be driving in a couple of years), so that makes for a lot of tires. Few things are so irritating to me as to hurry out the door to go somewhere and there sits a car with a flat- of course all of the other cars are gone and here I sit- immobile and frustrated! I pull out the jack and change out the tire with the “donut” tire in the trunk. I’m all hot and sweaty, and then I take the car into town to the tire and muffler place I usually go. The owner and I are on a first-name basis now- he has seen me so often. He smiles as he sees me walk in the door.
“Another one?” he asks. I nod my head.
“I can’t understand why you keep picking up so many nails, unless you might have a house with aluminum siding on it?” he says in his
I told him I live in a home with aluminum siding but couldn’t understand what that aluminum siding had to do with the tires on my car.
“I see it all the time,” he said, “Round here, its always so windy. The wind blows against your house and on the aluminum siding. The siding wiggles back and forth so much that after a while, it starts pullin’ nails out that holds it in. If you have a garage with the siding over it, the nails will fall right down in your driveway and then you run over them, see. I would take a look at that if I were you.”
I was grateful for the advice and when I came home later that day, I scoured the driveway for nails, especially in the spot he recommended. Sure enough! I picked up two or three small roofing and siding nails and threw them away. The nails have not stopped dropping, but I haven’t gotten a flat tire since then because I have been cognizant of looking for nails in that particular spot.
Having a hole in your tire may be inconvenient, but it can be fixed. Having a hole in your heart, however, is much more difficult to fix. The holes I am talking about are caused by things that stick into the relationships we have with others such as the barbs of distrust, criticism, or hurt. These are susceptible to fall during the storms of crisis which blow against our souls. The next thing we know, the relationship we have with someone we know is flat and not going anywhere, and we wonder how it came to be that way. Living with a hole in your heart is also very painful, and does not simply go away like the flip of a light switch. Only Christ can patch that hole, but it is painfully obvious that the relationship will never be the same again because it will have an embarrassing patch over it that everyone can see.
As difficult as it is to deal with, the one who has the responsibility to make things right, is you. The tire is not going to get fixed simply because you know where the nails are coming from. This is why the Apostle Paul said: Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:31-32.
Paul tells us that we own the responsibility of not allowing bitterness, example, to become a problem with someone. So if we find a flat, or even a small leak, it is up to us to repair it, patch things up, and to make it right. The nails will always be dropping, but we don’t have to live with a hole in our hearts. Christ will help us mend it- indeed He commands us to do it. Then we can be kind and forgiving to one another as Christ as forgiven us. But first we must take care of the hole that is in our hearts
Have a blessed day.
Rev. Jeffery C. Russell
Elizabeth City, NC
jefferyrussell@embarqmail.com
jcrussell@liberty.edu
Church website: http://25621.lifewaylink.com
Devotion Archives: http://www.msnusers.com/DevotionforToday
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