Churches should carry a health warning: Getting hurt is guaranteed.
Disagreements and misunderstandings are inevitable. Every member is a work in progress.
But remember, the person who rubs you up the wrong way is God’s sandpaper, working on your character on his behalf.
Having said that, we must protect our hearts. It’s easily to trust people you hardly know and then get wounded when they let you down.
Jesus guarded his heart carefully. John 2:24 says: ‘Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people.’
The Greek word for ‘know’ is ginóskó, which is also used to describe sexual intimacy.
So, we should only share the deepest parts of our hearts with people whom we know as closely as a husband or a wife.
This narrows down the field. And that’s how it should be.
Jesus loved everyone, but had three close friends, Peter, James and John. And John stood out as the one he really loved.
Also, some places in our hearts should remain between us and God. Proverbs 14:10 says: ‘Each heart knows its own bitterness and no-one else can share its joy.’
Jesus is the guardian of your soul (2 Peter 2:25). Your heart is only truly safe with him. And perhaps one other.