I ran across an old friend who has undergone some heartwrenching things lately. She was always a beautiful person, full of life and passion that made her smile at everything. But as I talked to her, I found that her smile had fallen and because of the heartache she has endured, she has taken her heart and refused to share it with anyone. Her conversation these days is shallow and lacking in the passion that it used to be full of. Her eyes that used to shine now are dull with pain and fear. She won't share what she has experienced, she says because she just doesn't want to. But I can't help wonder if its that she learned the lesson that making yourself vulnerable to people makes you more apt to being wounded very deeply. I wonder if she thinks that if she shares what she is truly feeling the tears will never stop. I wonder why, in the Body of Christ that surrounds her, she feels the need to bottle everything up and close her heart off to everyone that is close to her. Who did this to her? Why has she chosen to believe these lies that she can do it on her own? As I talked to her, I could hear the pain in her words as she tried to pretend that everything was ok. I could that tears were just underneath the surface and that her heart was aching with a pain that she felt she could no longer share. Maybe she is tired of sharing. Maybe sharing brings with it a fear of the pain she has endured. Maybe she was so hurt by the body of Christ that she no longer wants to put herself out there to be judged.

We need to love carefully. We need to see beyond what people say and not judge them for how they act, but instead see where it is coming from and address that issue with compassion. We need to help fearful people trust again and love again. We need to help them know that it is ok to hurt and to share those hurts. We need to cry with them and hold them close. There are many wounded people walking around. Many who have been so hurt that they have closed their hearts off to any vulnerability. That is not the way to life abundant. And some of us know this, but hurt too much to live it anymore.