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| Prescription for Heartache |
Prescription for Heartache
Please give me a prescription for heartache.” This curious request was made by a man who had been informed by his doctor that his feelings of disability were not of a physical nature. His trouble lay in an inability to rise above sorrow. He was suffering from “an ache in his personality” as a result of grief.
His doctor advised him to secure spiritual consultation and treatment. So continuing to use the terminology of medicine, he repeated his question, “Is there a spiritual pre-scription which will reduce my constant inner suffering? I realize that sorrow comes to everyone and I should be able to meet it the same as others. I have tried my best but I find no peace.” Again he said with a sad, slow smile, “Give me a prescription for heartache.”
There is indeed a “prescription” for heartache. One element in the prescription is physical activity. The sufferer must avoid the temptation to sit and brood. A sensible program which substitutes physical activity for such fruitless brooding reduces the strain on the area of the mind where we reflect, philosophize and suffer mental pain. Muscular activity utilizes another part of the brain and therefore shifts the strain and gives relief.
Whatever the character of your heartache, one of the first steps is to resolve to get back into the mainstream of life’s activities. Take up your old associations. Form new ones.
Get busy walking, riding, swimming, playing—get the blood to coursing through your system. Lose yourself in some worthwhile project. Fill your days with creative activity and emphasize the physical aspect of activity. Employ healthy mind-relieving busyness, but be sure that it is of a worthwhile and constructive nature. Superficial escapism through feverish activity, as, for example, parties and drinking, merely deadens pain temporarily and does not heal.
An excellent and normal release from heartache is to give way to grief. It is natural to cry when pain or sorrow comes. This is a relief mechanism provided in the body by Almighty God and should be used. A good cry is a release from heartache. I should warn, however, that this mechanism should not be used unduly nor allowed to become habitual.
Should that happen, it partakes of the nature of abnormal grief and could become a psychosis.
I receive many letters from people whose loved ones have died. They tell me that it is difficult for them to go to the same places they were in the habit of frequenting together or to be with the same people with whom they associated as a couple or as a family.
Therefore they avoid the old-time places and friends.
I regard this as a serious mistake. A secret of curing heartache is to be as normal and natural as possible. This does not imply disloyalty or indifference. This policy is important in avoiding a state of abnormal grief. Normal sorrow is a natural process and its normality is evidenced by the ability of the individual to return to his usual pursuits and responsibilities and continue therein as formerly.
The deeper remedy for heartache, of course, is the curative comfort supplied by trust in God. Inevitably the basic prescription for heartache is to turn to God in an attitude of faith and empty the mind and heart to Him. Perseverance in the act of spiritual self-emptying will finally bring healing to the broken heart.
Another profoundly curative element in the prescription for heartache is to gain a sound and satisfying philosophy of life and death and deathlessness. For my part, when I gained the unshakable belief that there is no death, that all life is indivisible, that the here and hereafter are one, that time and eternity are inseparable, that this is one unobstructed universe, then I found the most satisfying and convincing philosophy of my entire life.
This philosophy will not ward off the sorrow which comes when a loved one dies and physical, earthly separation ensues. But it will lift and dissipate grief. It will fill your mind with a deep understanding of the meaning of this inevitable circumstance. And it will give you a deep assurance that you have not lost your loved one. Live on this faith and you will be at peace and the ache will leave your heart.
Mr. H. B. Clarke, an old friend of mine, was for many years a construction engineer, his work taking him into all parts of the world. He was of a scientific turn of mind, a quite restrained, factual, unemotional type of man. I was called one night by his physician, who said that he did not expect him to live but a few hours. His heart action was slow and the blood pressure was extraordinarily low. There was no reflex action at all.
The doctor gave no hope.
I began to pray for him, as did others. The next day his eyes opened and after a few days he recovered his speech. His heart action and blood pressure returned to normal.
After he recovered strength he said, “At some time during my illness something peculiar happened to me. I cannot explain it. It seemed that I was a long distance away.
I was in the most beautiful and attractive place I have ever seen. There were lights all about me, beautiful lights. I saw faces dimly revealed, kind faces they were, and I felt peaceful and happy. In fact, I have never felt happier in my life.
“Then the thought came to me, ‘I must be dying.’ Then it occurred to me, ‘Perhaps I have died.’ Then I almost laughed out loud, and asked myself, ‘Why have I been afraid of death all my life? There is nothing to be afraid of in this.’”
Hallucination, a dream, a vision—I do not believe so. I have spent too many years talking to people who have come to the edge of “something” and had a look across, who unanimously have reported beauty, light and peace, to have any doubt in my own mind.
Read and believe the Bible as it tells about the goodness of God and the immortality of the soul. Make prayer and faith the habit of your life. Learn to have real fellowship with God and with Jesus Christ. As you do this you will find a deep conviction welling up in your mind that these wonderful things are true indeed. So in this faith, which is a sound, substantial and rational view of life and eternity, you have the prescription for heartache.
Please give me a prescription for heartache.” This curious request was made by a man who had been informed by his doctor that his feelings of disability were not of a physical nature. His trouble lay in an inability to rise above sorrow. He was suffering from “an ache in his personality” as a result of grief.
His doctor advised him to secure spiritual consultation and treatment. So continuing to use the terminology of medicine, he repeated his question, “Is there a spiritual pre-scription which will reduce my constant inner suffering? I realize that sorrow comes to everyone and I should be able to meet it the same as others. I have tried my best but I find no peace.” Again he said with a sad, slow smile, “Give me a prescription for heartache.”
There is indeed a “prescription” for heartache. One element in the prescription is physical activity. The sufferer must avoid the temptation to sit and brood. A sensible program which substitutes physical activity for such fruitless brooding reduces the strain on the area of the mind where we reflect, philosophize and suffer mental pain. Muscular activity utilizes another part of the brain and therefore shifts the strain and gives relief.
Whatever the character of your heartache, one of the first steps is to resolve to get back into the mainstream of life’s activities. Take up your old associations. Form new ones.
Get busy walking, riding, swimming, playing—get the blood to coursing through your system. Lose yourself in some worthwhile project. Fill your days with creative activity and emphasize the physical aspect of activity. Employ healthy mind-relieving busyness, but be sure that it is of a worthwhile and constructive nature. Superficial escapism through feverish activity, as, for example, parties and drinking, merely deadens pain temporarily and does not heal.
An excellent and normal release from heartache is to give way to grief. It is natural to cry when pain or sorrow comes. This is a relief mechanism provided in the body by Almighty God and should be used. A good cry is a release from heartache. I should warn, however, that this mechanism should not be used unduly nor allowed to become habitual.
Should that happen, it partakes of the nature of abnormal grief and could become a psychosis.
I receive many letters from people whose loved ones have died. They tell me that it is difficult for them to go to the same places they were in the habit of frequenting together or to be with the same people with whom they associated as a couple or as a family.
Therefore they avoid the old-time places and friends.
I regard this as a serious mistake. A secret of curing heartache is to be as normal and natural as possible. This does not imply disloyalty or indifference. This policy is important in avoiding a state of abnormal grief. Normal sorrow is a natural process and its normality is evidenced by the ability of the individual to return to his usual pursuits and responsibilities and continue therein as formerly.
The deeper remedy for heartache, of course, is the curative comfort supplied by trust in God. Inevitably the basic prescription for heartache is to turn to God in an attitude of faith and empty the mind and heart to Him. Perseverance in the act of spiritual self-emptying will finally bring healing to the broken heart.
Another profoundly curative element in the prescription for heartache is to gain a sound and satisfying philosophy of life and death and deathlessness. For my part, when I gained the unshakable belief that there is no death, that all life is indivisible, that the here and hereafter are one, that time and eternity are inseparable, that this is one unobstructed universe, then I found the most satisfying and convincing philosophy of my entire life.
This philosophy will not ward off the sorrow which comes when a loved one dies and physical, earthly separation ensues. But it will lift and dissipate grief. It will fill your mind with a deep understanding of the meaning of this inevitable circumstance. And it will give you a deep assurance that you have not lost your loved one. Live on this faith and you will be at peace and the ache will leave your heart.
Mr. H. B. Clarke, an old friend of mine, was for many years a construction engineer, his work taking him into all parts of the world. He was of a scientific turn of mind, a quite restrained, factual, unemotional type of man. I was called one night by his physician, who said that he did not expect him to live but a few hours. His heart action was slow and the blood pressure was extraordinarily low. There was no reflex action at all.
The doctor gave no hope.
I began to pray for him, as did others. The next day his eyes opened and after a few days he recovered his speech. His heart action and blood pressure returned to normal.
After he recovered strength he said, “At some time during my illness something peculiar happened to me. I cannot explain it. It seemed that I was a long distance away.
I was in the most beautiful and attractive place I have ever seen. There were lights all about me, beautiful lights. I saw faces dimly revealed, kind faces they were, and I felt peaceful and happy. In fact, I have never felt happier in my life.
“Then the thought came to me, ‘I must be dying.’ Then it occurred to me, ‘Perhaps I have died.’ Then I almost laughed out loud, and asked myself, ‘Why have I been afraid of death all my life? There is nothing to be afraid of in this.’”
Hallucination, a dream, a vision—I do not believe so. I have spent too many years talking to people who have come to the edge of “something” and had a look across, who unanimously have reported beauty, light and peace, to have any doubt in my own mind.
Read and believe the Bible as it tells about the goodness of God and the immortality of the soul. Make prayer and faith the habit of your life. Learn to have real fellowship with God and with Jesus Christ. As you do this you will find a deep conviction welling up in your mind that these wonderful things are true indeed. So in this faith, which is a sound, substantial and rational view of life and eternity, you have the prescription for heartache.
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