We all deal with one. Maybe more than one.
An issue in our heart that we know does not belong there.
Maybe a dream we wont let go. An impossible dream that will hurt others as we strive to obtain it, because the actions we would have to take are unhealthy for those around us – based on selfishness. A gambling addiction – an investment in the next get-rich-quick pyramid business – behavior that is selfishly motivated while others in your family are the victims, going without financially while you throw those dice, just one more time.
Maybe the issue is very personal. A deep dark secret no one knows about but you and your Maker who can see right into your heart.
You know what it is.
We all deal with one.
Issues like these remind me of a fishing hook.
It is something that doesn’t belong in anyone’s body. It is unhealthy, (especially for the fish).
It is painful, hurting much more coming out, than it does going in, ripping and tearing flesh with its little barbs as it exits. It is for that reason that we turn away from even the implication of releasing it.
Letting it go.
We wrap our arms around our torso, and turn our backs to anyone who would even suggest the relenquishing of our precious Desire.
Dream.
Or Addiction.
We refuse to imagine what pain would result in our opening our arms and yielding our torso to anyone who would dare an attempt to extricate it from within the recesses of our heart.
I was pondering my own heart issue this morning, my own secret, the hook I’ve come to accept and even love, and I realized that attempting to extricate it on my own was impossible.
Like having a fishing hook stuck in one’s finger, sometimes one needs help removing it, and sometimes it is in so deeply that they need to go and seek professional assistance with the procedure.
I thought about the Lord, and how he offers us assistance with heart issues, and how often we try to tough it out and clean up, or remove sin on our own, even though he says “Come unto Me”.
I thought about the pain it was going to cause. The healing would be there later, but the pain seemed insurmountable and an impossibility to face. Better to just leave my hook in there and let my heart grow around it; just like the fish that gets away, only to be caught years later, hook still in its mouth. A part of its body now.
But we all know the poor thing was suffering all that time. And we all know that the corrosion of the foreign object will eventually bring about the demise of its bearer – poison seeping into its bloodstream – eventually infecting the heart. The very thing that keeps it alive.
It would be better to allow someone to help get it out – before it begins to fester and bring about our own demise.
There are many who know what they are doing, and I encourage seeking their help.
But there is also a Great Physician, who came, not for the well, but to heal the sick.
There are professionals who can help us in the natural, and there is another who can mend us in the spirit as well as the natural.
And He beckons: “Come unto me, all that labor, all that carry heavy burdens, all who are weary…”
As I look into my mirror, I look to you as well, and speak these words:
Turn to the Physician.
He will remove the hook and save your life.
