Binding up a Broken Heart

Isaiah 61:1  The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. 

What part of the above verse can you most relate to?  Do you need to hear a little preaching that brings good news.  Are you brokenhearted?  Does something hold you captive?  Do you feel like your locked up in prison waiting to be released?  I think all of us could relate to some part of the above verse. 

The part that jumps out to me?  Being brokenhearted.  There are  many ways I've had my heart broken over time.  When my grandma passed away - my first experience of death.  When a boy I was dating cheated on me.  When my mom had her second stroke.  When my parents divorced.  When I was hospitalized in a state of severe mania.  And those things don't even begin to touch the surface.  Yea, there's no shortage of examples when it comes to talking about my broken heart.

I'm sure you could share many of your own brokenhearted experiences.  But it's comforting to know that their is an answer for every broken piece of our hearts.  Jesus.  He's the one the above scripture is referring to.  He's the one who's going to bind us up and bring healing even out of our pain. 

For every bad thing that has come into my life, I can share with you dozens of reasons for why it's turned out for my good.  Take, for example, the day I was hospitalized.  It was without a doubt the worst experience of my life.  As I mentioned I was in a state of severe mania.  But that isn't the whole picture.  I was so manic that I was psychotic.  If you don't understand what that means the best way I can describe it is to say it's like being in a dream state, only you're not asleep, you're awake.  It's kind of like a waking nightmare. 

When I started to come out of my mania I knew that something horrible had happened, but I didn't really know what it was.  I spent two days in the Crisis Center in Lincoln and then another week in the psychiatric ward at Bryan LGH.  In that time I was questioning God like I never had before. 

But looking back I am so thankful to have gone through that experience when I did.  Number one - because I finally had a diagnosis for what was wrong with me.  Now I could get the right help and be put on the right medication.  Number two - it strengthened my marriage like nothing else but a crisis can do.  Thirdly, it happened before I had my first child.  If I wouldn't have been diagnosed when I was, there's no telling what would have happened if I'd had a child in the picture. 

The book that I'm writing now is called Pools of Blessing.  I'll explain later in the book why it's called that.  But basically for me it's about how God took something so horrific in my life and turned it into the biggest blessing I could have asked for.  I'm healthy now.  I've learned how to cope better with my illness.  No, everything isn't always peachy keen, but life is so much better than it used to be.  I feel like some of my broken heart has, indeed, been bound up.  I can't wait to get to heaven where all my broken pieces will come back together for good.  Under the care of the best Physician ever,  Jesus, my broken heart will be made whole again.