I wasn’t going to post this “Ask Joy” response because I was really tired when I recorded it and I hope whoever asked the question doesn’t feel like I am un-empathetic…it’s just those lazy eyes that kick in when I am fatigued.

I promise.

And why…oh why…do I end “Ask Joys” with “you should be good to go!” I sound like a 68-year-old car mechanic.

The reason I decided to go ahead and post is because recently I have had multiple conversations on this topic.

How do we have good boundaries? How do we not let past hurts keep us from moving forward with so much caution that we never give anyone a shot?

My answer talks about asking for advice from people who know you, but also to not be so hard on yourself. Don’t be surprised when pain comes.  It may simply mean you have a soul and care about people!

Does that mean we subject ourselves to the pain of heart break over and over? Hopefully not. But we do live in a broken world.  Christ does not delight in seeing our heart break. Because he experienced humanity, he hurts when we hurt.

My theory is that we were never supposed to give our entire heart to someone more than once.  Many of us have to experience and live in the midst of that type of pain due to our broken humanity.

And so, we must press into the hope of scripture, tread forward and ask for support from our diverse community and then, even though the pain isn’t necessarily minimized, we do our best to live a balanced life.

We get up again and give with our heart, trust with our soul, and move on, even when fear and old wounds resurface.

Blessings to all my broken-hearted friends. Soon enough, “you should be good to go.”