Walking With Christ

Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.(NIV)

Let’s talk about bones. They are normally such a useful structure. When we are in the womb they get formed and become the foundation of our bodies. This is the scaffolding from which our physical self is hung. It’s by leveraging pressure against these bones that provides us with motility. These rigid structures are amazing. Despite how vital they are, it only takes a moment to break one. This can be truly devastating when it happens.

Once the bone is broken we don’t just leave it and hope that it fixes itself. No. We put a cast on it to protect the bone and help it to regrow in the proper way. This is meant to minimize the damage later. We limit how the body moves and how the world interacts with that part of the body to allow it time to heal properly.

Compare that to trust. Like bones, trust is built over time and constantly renewed. Like bones, it only takes a careless moment to break trust in some devastating ways.

Why, then, do we so often just leave trust to heal hoping it will magically heal itself? Why do we not put our trust into a cast or sling to help it restore properly over time? Why would anyone scoff at the idea of placing proper boundaries around ourselves to make sure that the damage from the broken trust is minimized?

Boundaries are healthy when done right. Healthy relationships come from healthy boundaries. “I love you, but I don’t trust you.” Is perfectly acceptable to say when someone has broken trust. Forgiveness is a vital release, but healing takes time. We need to use casts and slings for trust so that we can heal the damage to our hearts. If the heart is damaged and we don’t heal from that then the root of bitterness becomes hate and then we become the very thing that hurt us.