'Heartburn'

I can remember when I could eat ANYTHING, whenever I wanted to, and still sleep through the night. Those were the days! The new reality is that unless I want to wake up in the wee hours of the morning with indigestion, there are certain foods that I just don’t partake of … or if I do, then I make sure to take that pill that guarantees to relive indigestion and heartburn and then I can sleep through the night! First of all I have to discover just what the culprit food is and then I can takes steps, [or not] to delete it from my diet. But this is something that I do almost without thinking; dealing with the cause of my physical discomfort is almost automatic.

But have you even experience this ‘heartburn’ for a non-physical reason? And if you have, what have you done about it? These were the questions that challenged me from a recent sermon.

The disciples in ‘The Road to Emmaus’ story also had ‘heartburn’ for as reported in Luke, they said “Were not our hearts burning within us…?” (Luke 24:32[a]) but this heartburn wasn’t caused by something they ate, but rather by someone they had talked to.

Have you had this experience? You hear a sermon or maybe just a random comment from a friend and suddenly you stand convicted. Perhaps you see a story of the evening newscast or read an article in the newspaper, and your awareness changes. You can’t really describe how you feel or even what you feel, you just know you have to do something about it. Your heart burns within you!

There is no Tums to relieve this sort of heartburn. Sometimes we manage to forget the cause and it disappears. But if we’re really lucky a little niggling remnant stays with us until we are finally do something about it. And that is the key, I believe. ACTION! Once we act on whatever it is that makes our hearts burn within us, we open the door to future actions being easier. Wherever this heartburn leads you it won’t be to the medicine cabinet for a pill to relieve the feeling. It will involve you getting your hands dirty, putting yourself out there on the line, standing up and being counted for what you feel is important in this life. It will lead you down the road trod by Jesus as you attempt to put into expression justice, love, compassion and non-violence in the place where you live. At least that is what my heart challenges me to do.

How does your heart challenge you?