The Ears of Mercy

"Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth." (1 John 3.18)

Forgotten Heart

The trappings of a busy life,
Countless distractions manifold,
Ingested as internal strife --
The heart's story is left untold.

With expectations riding high,
All energies are poured into
The goal with one great battle cry!
The first to fall? The heart's pierced through.

With illusion, the urn's adorned,
To bury the heart's unfelt pain;
The heart's emotion is stillborn --
Unhealed and bleeding once again.

The heart contracts beneath the shell
Of scab-encrusted denial.
The truth's buried -- no one can tell --
Suffering is seen as vile.

To hear the heart and dab its wound,
We face the truth of the unloved;
In embracing, pain is assumed --
Extend the hand -- unclenched, ungloved!

In truth, the heart is stilled to hear:
It's not afraid to feel the pain
Of the unloved as they draw near --
Fear is love's greatest untold bane.

Love without truth is illusion;
Truth without love is confusion.

"Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son in truth and love." (2 John 1.3)

Holy Spirit of Truth, enlighten our minds and still our hearts to hear the truth with love. Amen.