Astonished Heart

9-18-07

While taking a friend home a few nights ago we found ourselves stuck for a short period behind a car parked in the middle of the street. The lights were on, the engine was running and the driver’s door was wide open. Standing a few feet from the car was a young woman. The sound she made was too faint to be a scream but too blurred and trembled for a conversation. With her arms folded rubbing her shoulders and walking around trembling made it clear, terror was in the air.

Fortunately she had stopped just across the street from the police station. The police were trying to comfort her and sooth her troubles but to not avail. I heard one of the officers in a demanding yet disturbed voice ask, “Where is he, is that him?” With each question she turned away briskly screaming, 'No, Ah, Ah'!

Knowing my magnetic pull for being caught in weird situations. I hurried the car around as I spoke a word of peace over her situation. No doubt some guy had done something causing her to become what Deuteronomy 28:28 calls an ‘Astonished Heart’.

What is an astonished heart? It is a heart that is filled with feelings of anxiety. It leaves a person uneasy, nervous and vulnerable to the unexpected. Everything seems to go wrong even the right ones. There is no comfort regardless of what is done. The sense of urgency rules even when there is nothing happening. There is no confidence regardless of the amount of support.

Self assurance is not produced by an astonished heart. A person with this sort of heart is unable to identify the truth from a lie, the secure from the worried, the positive from the negative nor the certain from the uncertain. The person is left full of doubt, jittery and afraid. Silent fears are killers. They rob life of its future, hide the opportunities that come available, drain the drive to do more, get better and improve oneself in order to get the most out of a situation.

How do you get rid of an astonish heart? Trust in the Lord. Listen carefully to His voice and OBEY.