Watch out, he's in pieces on the floor.

My personal goal for blogging is that I would be able to post every day, at least Monday through Friday.  I rarely meet that goal and today is one of the days that I would prefer not to blog.  It's ironic to me that I wrote about m&m's yesterday, using them as a metaphor for the hardening of the human heart.  I find it more tempting as time goes on to harden my heart too.  It is so much easier to do that than it is to remain vulnerable, responsive and tender.  I think of the "parable of the yelping dog" post from two days ago.  I wonder how yelping dogs cannot harden their hearts when they feel as if they are continually cast aside.  I do not write my blogs to be overly positive and unrealistic.  It is awful in this world, it is full of so much emotional and spiritual distress.  How do yelping dogs survive and not become m&m's?  Better yet, how does God handle yelping dogs who have become m&m's?  The illustration of the ice bag may apply.

There was a man who went to the store to purchase a bag of ice.  Upon arriving at the store, he searched the store for the freezer that stored all the bags of ice.  After searching for some time, the man found the ice bags but noticed that all the bags were frozen solid.  No bag had been broken up so that the ice was useful for cooling drinks or storing food.  The man found the bag that appeared to be the most prepared to be broken up.  The man took the bag, lifted it up to his chest and dropped the bag on the floor.  The ice broke into cube shaped pieces, perfect for their intended purpose.  The man purchased the bag and the ice was then put to good use.

So many of our hearts are just one block of ice.  We have stayed in the freezer so long that the parts of our hearts designed to be used for a specific purpose have formed together into a hardened block of cold.  I feel like God is the business of breaking up that ice into pieces that can be put to work.  He searches for the heart that will respond to this brokenness.  When God takes us up to His chest, we feel so intimately close to Him and we rejoice over His blessings.  And God drops us on the ground of brokenness, of hurt and pain, of fear and abandonment.  We cry out as our hardened core lays in pieces in this bag of a body.  While we feel that God has forsaken us, He cries as He watches our pain and says, "If you only knew what this will do for you.  I am preparing you to be put to use."  

victorystore.com

Though this parable reflects a deep spiritual truth, I feel that it does not mollify the pain of being broken.  I think that is one of the reasons why God gives us community, so we can break into pieces into the arms of those who love us.  So many believers see the ice bag drop and even break.  They run to grab a "Caution" sign so others do not slip and hope the situation will resolve itself.  As members of the Christian community, we have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters to participate in the brokenness process.  We are to treat others as we desire to be treated.  How would we like to be treated if we were the bag of ice on the ground?  "I'd just want to be left alone, let me figure it out."  I am not so sure that is the truth.  I am not so sure broken ice bags can figure out anything by themselves, actually.  In some circumstances, without our knowing, we may even be the person that God uses to lift the ice and drop it on the floor.  Furthermore, we have a responsibility to involve ourselves in ice block formation prevention (sounds so public safety-like, doesn't it?).  By sharing our hearts with others, by not being an m&m, by stepping out of the position of the ambivalent observer, we can help others remain responsive and tender as well.

I am not sure if I really answered the questions that I asked in the first paragraph of today's post.  I am still working through these things in my own heart.  I am fighting to remain tender and responsive, doing all I know how to not be an m&m.  Sometimes I just want to take out a pen and write a big "M" on my stomach.  Take that world!  And then I remember that the only person "taking that" is me.  If something causes us to want to label our bellies like chocolate candies, something is certainly wrong (and we might want to consult psychological help at that point).  In all seriousness, whatever causes us to want to put a shell around our hearts needs some serious attention.

God will break up the ice blocks in his flock.  "I'm not an ice block!  This doesn't apply to me."  Oh my friend, it may apply to you the most.  True story.