Hi, everybody. Pastor Chuck Allen here, and thanks so much for joining me on today's weekday podcast, where I want to talk today about an old Hebrew word, lev besar. You know, there's something powerful about a heart that's been broken open, like having open heart surgery. I mean, not crushed by life circumstances, but opened, open to make tender and receptive to both pain and joy. I was recently reading an article from one of my favorite authors named Terry Hershey. He writes a piece that's really, really good called Sabbath Moment. He shared this ancient phrase, lev besar, meaning a heart of flesh. It comes from the beautiful promise in Ezekiel, where God says, in Ezekiel 36:26, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. What strikes me about this imagery is the radical transformation being described. A heart of stone, cold, closed and protective, becoming soft, warm and alive again. It isn't just poetic language. It's this super profound spiritual reality that a lot of us, especially me, need to experience.
There was a rabbi, Dr. Ariel Berger. He captured it really strongly when he wrote these words. There's nothing as whole as a broken heart. In these traditions. You cultivate a broken heart, which is very different from depression or sadness. It's the kind of vulnerability, openness, and acute sensitivity to your own suffering and the suffering of others that becomes, listen to this, y'all, an opportunity for connection. I love that perspective. There's nothing as whole as a broken heart because at first glance, it seems kind of paradoxical. How can brokenness lead to wholeness? That seems contradictory. But the more you chew on that idea, the more you can see it in your own life. I bet I know I do in mine. When I felt the most connected to others, the most compassionate, the most spiritually alive, it's usually after I've gone through a very difficult season or have felt radically vulnerable. And research confirms this. I mean, it really does. Dr. Brene Brown's research on vulnerability reveals that our willingness to be seen in our imperfection actually strengthens our connections with others.
Jesus modeled this heart of flesh. He wept at Lazarus Tomb. He was moved with compassion when he saw crowds of hurting people. Far from being emotionally distant or stoic Jesus lived with a heart full of both joy and sorrow. In our culture, we prize like big time heroes who are tough and invulnerable. But embracing a heart of flesh is so counterculture, it goes beyond powerful. We're tempted to protect ourselves, to build walls, to numb our pain with endless distractions. But the invitation to God's word is to allow God to soften what was hardened and make alive what would grown old. The Apostle Paul puts this paradoxical strength and weakness super well when he says in 2nd Corinthians 12:9 but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power can rest upon me. Today, my friend, I ask you to join me in this simple prayer. God, where my heart has grown hard or numb, would you make it soft again? Where I've built walls, help me build bridges, give me the courage to live with a heart of flesh open to you and open to others. Friends, listen. In our broken, open hearts may we discover what we really do know deep down that there's indeed nothing as whole as a heart that's been broken and made tender by love. Like the Psalmist said, Lord, in Psalm 34, you are close to those of us that are brokenhearted, and you save those who are crushed in spirit. God bless you friend. Thanks so much for joining me on today's weekday podcast.
