a somber heart

a somber heart
Originally uploaded by rod lewis

A heart that is scarred, bent and broken is right to be manifest with a face of sorrow. To wear a façade of joy around a broken heart is fake, or worse, a state of denial.
A heart that is healed, or even being healed will wear a face of joy. This is a heart that hopes.
It is a sad truth that healed hearts often, in forgetting they were ever broken, become quite superficial, careless, and lack a healthy guard to protect them from being broken again, or perhaps worse, breaking another heart.
It is necessary to take inventory, to look deeply, to excavate our depths, to come to know who we are and why.
This is a discipline that requires much serious and somber searching. Sometimes it requires a bit of mending, or even excision, but this is a submitted breaking for the purpose of complete healing and is worn on the face as joy even amidst great pain, sorrow and shame. Never hopelessness though - for there needn't be hopelessness in a heart that trusts.