Walking with the Wise #148: A Broken Heart

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”
—Proverbs 13:12

On January 24, the New York Times website reported that a broken heart may soon be identified as an actual diagnosis. Diagnosable or not, we know how painful a broken heart is.Whether it is coping with the death of a loved one, the loss of a marriage, relationship, career, job, or dream, the pain of a broken heart is crippling.

God knows our heart better than anyone, since He made it. He knows what it means for us to truly love someone, to hope, to dream, and to set our sights upon something. He also knows that if we defer hope, it will make us hurt. He knows that if one of the desires we have is fulfilled, then it will be a tree of life—a hope that has fruit that gives life to others.

We are complex beings with a host of loves, dreams, aspirations, and desires. But the greatest desire that we have—the biggest hole that is in our hearts, cannot be filled by anything in this world—love, success, power, fame, sex, food, and drink all foreshadow the greater pleasure of spending eternity with God. God created all of the pleasures of life for our enjoyment—but they can only truly be enjoyed when they are being pursued rightly (i.e., in the way God desires). Even then, the desire cannot fill the void within us, for temporary things cannot fulfill an eternal hole. Only that which is eternal can fill the void of our spirit. We are temporal in body, but eternal in spirit, and we have been created to exist for eternity. All of the pleasures of this world are simply the appetizers that whet our appetite before we eat the main course in eternity. Is it any wonder, then, that this is the very image God employs for us in the book of Revelation? He gives us the image of eternity being that of a marriage supper, the marriage supper of the Lamb, where we eat the delicacies of the Lord at His table (Revelation 19:9).

Where is your ultimate hope? If it is not in the Lord, you will consistently find yourself being disappointed and your heart broken. The only true desire that cannot be deferred, and ultimately fulfilled, is our hope in Christ. It is the only hope that will never be disappointed, will never be stopped, and that can never be taken away—no matter what life throws at us.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope”—Romans 15:13. Amen.