Keeping My Heart Open

“Jesus, keep me open. May my heart stay available.”

That’s been my prayer for years, but even more so recently as I’m learning to juggle my ever growing responsibilities of wife, foster mom, manager, second job, meetings, more meetings, friends, family out of state, etc. I pray this mostly because it’s easy for me to isolate when I feel pressed down by life—and I’ve felt pressed down a lot lately. In response, I can become closed off to God and the world around me—or I become entirely consumed by the rush of life and struggle to stay present. But that’s the furthest thing from living out the gospel in tangible ways.

I think most of us feel overwhelmed by life these days and have little margin to actively “go after the things of God” as some would say. And yet, more than anything we want the fruit of the gospel to be evident in and through our lives. We deeply desire for Christ to get every ounce of glory. So we’re invited to lay down our own ways of isolation, self protection, or whatever else it may be and open up to His ways of love and availability trusting that He has great things in store and that there’s always more than enough.

Whether you’ve been hurt in relationships, busyness has been a (valid) excuse, or you’ve just lost hope or the ability to dream, I pray that you are able to reevaluate and make space in your heart and life to stay open to the possibilities of God moving beyond your walls. Let your pursuit of the kingdom look less like going after something and more like a willingness to foster an open and soft heart.