Help For A Heartbreak Series

“How to Deal with the Way I Feel” part 3 (Help for a Heartbreak)

Brian A. Moon

One time there was a famous newspaper reporter that phoned a story into his editor. The story was about an empty truck that had a blown tire and then had rolled down a hill and smashed into a home. The editor was unimpressed and told the reporter he didn’t want to run the story because it was not that big of a story. "I’m glad you’re taking this so calmly,” the reporter said, “It was your house.”

Tonight we continue looking at “How to Deal with the Way I Feel” and more specifically at where do we find “Help for a Heartbreak.” Pain, suffering, and heartbreak are familiar topic’s in our country today after the events of 9/11, but it doesn’t have to be something as big as a truck smashing our house to bits, or a terrorist attack to bring about feelings of heartbreak in our lives.

I can remember being a freshman in high school and trying out for the baseball team. I had played Little League for years and this was to be the crowning achievement in my young baseball career. It meant pride, and respect, and most importantly, girls… The try-outs were 2 weeks long and I felt pretty good about my chances for success. I never will forget sitting there on the dugout bench and listening to the names being read off for making the final cut. As they finished reading the names and mine was not called, I picked up my bag and headed for the gate with big tear drops in my eyes. It was just baseball, not some big life threatening thing, but it hurt, it was heartbreaking for me not to make the team.

Heartbreak can come from the loss of a loved one, like a grandmother, or even the loss of a cherished family pet. It can come from a boyfriend or girlfriend telling you those wonderful words, “I think we should just be friends.” Or you can experience heartbreak by people making fun of you, and being made to look foolish in front of others. From people letting you down to letting yourself down, heartbreak is seemingly around every corner of our lives waiting to jump out and rob us of our joy. And heartbreak doesn’t just happen to the bad people of the world, good people like you and me seem to experience heartbreak as much or more than those people who we think deserve to feel it. How to we handle heartbreak, where do we find help for it? When I did not make the baseball team I could have handled the situation in one of two ways, a way that was positive, or a way that was negative. I could have indulged myself in destructive things like getting high, or getting drunk somewhere, or I could use this heartbreak to make me a better person. But how is this done, how do we handle heartbreak in a way that makes us better people? Today there are people that there entire career is Grief counseling, they guide people in how to grieve and handle heartbreak, but there is one thing these people cannot offer.

These human counselors lack the ability to comfort from within. Sure they can offer you advice and comfort from the outside, but they cannot dive into the middle of our heart and give you peace that springs from right where you hurt. And it is not just counselors, no human being is capable of helping you hurt, right where you hurt, because they cannot feel exactly what you are feeling. People experience things in as many different ways as there are people, so only a higher source can know exactly how you hurt.

1 John 3:10 “But even if we don’t feel at ease, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.” CEV

Only God can crawl into the middle of your hurt and comfort you right where you are at. Only he knows everything and only he is greater than our feelings.

We think we are greater than our feelings, we try to suppress them and bury them deep within our hearts, but they eventually come back to haunt us again later in life. That is why when we experience heartbreak the only true help is from God, he is the only way to handle heartbreak in way that will make us better people. And the first thing he says to do is:

Let yourself hurt

Ecclesiastes 3:1 & 4 “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance” NIV