Soft Heart

One thing that has always amazed me about God is that He maintains a soft heart, continuing to love, through anything we may do.  It’s an area where we’re just so completely unlike Him.  It doesn’t mean that He doesn’t get angry or doesn’t have boundaries.  But He doesn’t have “attitude” that comes with it.  You know the kind of attitude I’m talking about, don’t you?  The “well, fine – be that way!”  Or, “Oh yeah?  I’ll show you.”  There’s no bitterness or resentment, there's no "got'cha" or "I'll get you".  He doesn’t go on the attack or withdraw, He doesn’t manipulate, or exhibit any of the internal ‘tude that we’re all prone to have when relationships or circumstances or life in general don’t go our way.

Picture it: You’ve spent just about every day of your life for the past 3 years with a group of a dozen friends.  You’ve taught them everything you could.  You’ve answered their questions.  You’ve gone to parties with them.  You’ve been patient with them.  You’ve healed their sick relatives.  They’ve watched you heal countless people.  You called them family.  But the moment the authorities decide there’s something wrong with you and arrest you… they all disappear.  They abandon you.  Even all-out reject you, or deny ever knowing you.  After 3 years of sharing everything, they’re just gone.

Then to be beaten and tortured, left totally alone, and nailed to a cross – all totaling hours of increasingly excruciating pain.  What would any of us do?  Wouldn’t we just snap at some point?  In the midst of the physical pain plus the mental and emotional pain of being abandoned by those closest to you, wouldn’t you yell out, “SCREW YOU!”?  Or at the very least, mentally berate them for being the most worthless set of friends on the planet?  But He said, “Father, forgive them.”  And maybe He wasn’t only referring to the people who were there.

When we’re hurt or offended or under pressure – even just feeling over-busy at work – we tend to snap, go on the attack, or withdraw.  But Jesus never did that – never does that.  It’s one of the things that amazes me most about His character – He heart is always soft and loving.  He always leaves His heart open, yet He’s also not a doormat and does still maintain boundaries.  He’s always ready, willing and wanting us to come back at any moment without feeling any residual “junk” about what we’ve said to Him or how we’ve treated Him or ignored Him, and  there's no expectation of "making up for it".  He doesn’t have past, bad experiences that continue to stick with Him and influence how He interacts with and responds to people.  He’s just always Himself: unchanged by any outside force, but instead pure and untarnished, loving and soft-hearted.  That's what I want to be like.