One of my friends just posted this on Facebook, which reminded me how much I love this quote.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”  - C.S. Lewis

Don't keep your heart in a box.

So, here's my rambling paraphrasation (that's a real word now, because I said so):

Sometimes, your heart needs to stay in a box for awhile, to take a break from the world, so that God can revive and refresh you. If you leave your heart in the box, though, you will be heartless and, therefore, dead. You've got to put your heart back in your chest and go out into the world. You have to let yourself be hurt, let yourself bleed, let your heart be rubbed raw from loving others. Only when your heart is raw, only when you are bleeding, can you truly feel the joy that comes from loving others. Then, and only then, in your imitation of Christ's passion, can you be truly joined to the will and love of Christ.

As a final note, that picture above is from an awesome study at UCLA! You should check it out.

I'm praying for you!

:)