Open Heart Challenge Day 3

A Story from Sister Pearce

Sister Pearce and her friends met to share their results. “Pauline, one of the eight friends trying the experiment, was going to the gym to work out a couple of weeks before. A lady greeted her at the gym and Pauline couldn’t pull up her name or even a context. ‘I was about to pull out a friendly response and go to the other side of the workout room but then I paid attention to my heart. It was all shriveled up, moving to the back of my chest. Protected, hard, and rather cold.’ I quickly talked to myself, ‘Wait a minute Pauline, this is your chance to experiment!” So I said, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t place you, tell me your name.’ The door flew open to what Pauline called the most wonderful hour of conversation. We moved to exercise machines next to each other and my friend from kindergarten whom I had not seen since high school ended up telling me her life’s story, and boy was it a tough one. We cried together as she described what she had gone through, but the real tears came when she told me that she had been re-baptized that very week and was anticipating a new and good life ahead of her. My heart at then end of the hour was a different heart, it was the heart we’ve talked about so much. Softened, opened, filled with His love. Reaching out, non-judgmental, positive, kind, affirming. After we finished exercising, I introduced her to my girls. It was as if I were introducing a long-lost loved one and I guess that’s what she really is. I know I don’t love her like the Lord does, but there really was some of that in there. Then Pauline paused and said more quietly, ‘I can’t believe I almost missed the whole experience because I habitually keep my heart closed and move on when I don’t recognize someone. I guess it’s pride. It’s such a stupid thing! And guess what? It didn’t take any extra time out of my day.’ Pauline raised one arm in a triumphal salute, ‘Life is good!’ And so it went around the circle. Everyone had at least one simple story to tell. We had come into the room not feeling like we had done very well, but as we listened to one another and reflected on our moments of awareness when we had consciously opened our hearts, our enthusiasm exploded. Even as we sat together we felt our hearts changing in profound ways. The world around us suddenly seemed new. We began to feel directly His love for us and we were surprised at how energizing it was to help others feel God’s love for them because of the way we thought about them and treated them…this wasn’t really as revolutionary as we had thought! Christianity 101, if you please, why did it seem so effortless and brand new? It took virtually no extra time. Perhaps we had spent a lot of our time going about doing good rather than letting the Lord help us become good in our hearts. We loved it and couldn’t quit talking about it and wanting to change more.

This becomes an invitation to you, my dear listening friend to open your heart just a crack wider. Because of our experiment, I really have become convinced that opening your heart really does split the sky in two and let the face of God shine through. I hope that the simplicity of our experiment does not insult you, but you will think it inviting to consider your own heart. Perhaps my friends and I were the only ones on the planet who were making life harder than it really is, but maybe, just maybe it’s harder for you than it needs to be also” (Virginia H. Pearce, A Heart Like His).