There is no heart that is bullet proof. The heart that takes continual blows will become severely tattered.

Whether it is outwardly seen or not Christ Jesus knows intimately the wounds of one’s heart.

While some have successfully built a strong refuge around their heart, it is no doubt still in need of healing.

Tattered and torn like a grenade detonated are many hearts in the sheep fold. One painful moment becomes compounded by the next and a cycle of sorrow ensues.

Yet, Christ has called us to tend and mend the sheep.

This will require the Shepherds to be all hands on deck. A hospital must be erected to care for the wounded. People put in places that are gifted by God to tend the needs of the heart.

A preacher-teacher-evangelist-or prophet does not always make a shepherd. Know your people and who Christ has called them to be.

The tattered heart will require many hours of listening and loving. You’ll have to let Christ pin-point pains unseen even by the wounded heart themselves. Often, the root of pain was created many years prior and many have ended up living in a complex trauma world.

This is the work of setting captives free and binding the broken-hearted. It’s the work sown in tears and hand holding until one is fully capable to walk alone again. Few desire this work because it can be laborious. But it is the work of a shepherd.

The love of Christ in many are looking for the tattered hearts. He sends us into every nook and cranny combing the land for lost lambs. Babes who have been downtrodden, full of hopelessness and despair, and often rejected and orphaned by the body of Christ.

Yet, hidden within them are the Esther’s, Deborah’s, Abigail’s, Lydia’s, Phoebes, and more who simply need a place for healing.

Each tattered heart is critical to the functioning of the church and its plight from Christ to go ye and preach…the gospel…

May we be given eyes to see and ears to hear once again the tattered hearts needing to be restored.

And may the Shepherds appointed by Christ rise to this great call to tend and mend the broken and tattered hearts.