Christ’s heart was woven out of Lycra. Mankind’s heart, too often, is twisted in broadcloth. The amount of love a heart can hold is dependent on how much it is willing, and able, to stretch. Is it any wonder then how Christ’s heart made room to love both the worthy and unworthy, while it’s too tight a fit for human hearts to hold dear anyone but the worthy? Christ’s heart stretches, so as not to reach a “filled-up” limit. Mortal hearts, it seems, have a capacity; and, once reached, inclusion turns away in exclusion. For man’s heart to mirror God’s, maybe, we need to change the fabric of our hearts.
The human heart wastes far too much time and energy condemning what is wrong instead of personifying what is right. Let me be clear on this. God does not want, expect, nor even hint that we are to love what is wrong. Wrong is wrong, and this is plain and simple. However, so much emphasis is placed, today, on hating and confronting what goes against one’s convictions that Christians feel let off the hook when it comes to living God’s example, Christ’s love and reflecting Godliness.
Hate, too often, overflows from our hearts when love is needed to pour forth and fill in the potholes Satan strews across our life’s journey. A heart that stretches in love is the best (and definitely Christ’s) means of filling in the sink holes scattered along the Highway to Heaven? Take note. It’s a Highway to Heaven, not a low way. Highway implies God’s way. Low way insinuates Satan’s way. The Highway of God’s heart stretches in love. The low way of Satan’s heartlessness is corseted in hate.
One last thought: our hearts are created to stretch in love, but our morals are purposed to shrink from evil. Would that we all could (and would) reverse today’s norm – hearts shrinking in love and morals stretching in evil. There is but one way for this to happen. For our hearts to stretch and evil to shrink we must embrace “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. … Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. … Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’. … Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”. Romans 12: 9-10, 12, 16-19, 21 (ESV) In modern day tongue, a Twenty-First Century translation might simply say: Exchange the broadcloth of your heart for the heart of lycra that is Christ’s.
Uplifted in a Broken Down World 