Matters of the Heart

I rode the bus today to the mall to finish up a few last minute errands I needed to run before I leave tomorrow for London and Paris. That's right. This is my big European vacation that I've been planning for over a year now. I'm meeting up with some friends who live abroad like me and spending a few days in London and then a few days in Paris. I'm incredibly excited. I don't know if I'm more excited about seeing my friends, seeing new sights, or the possibility of eating at an Outback in London! It's been awhile and this Turkish girl is craving a good steak and a some service in English! I do love a British accent, too. Don't worry, I'll post lots of pictures of the sights. I may not have Internet while I'm gone, but I'll be back next week.
But, back to the bus ride. I always have lots of time to think on the bus ride, I take in the sights that I've grown to love of the older more traditional Turkey that my bus winds through to get where I'm going. I drink in the sights deeply and let my mind wander to all that He takes it to. Today I was thinking about matters of the heart--in several ways. My grandpa had a heart attack this week. He is slowly recovering and we would appreciate your prayers. I was thinking about what an incredible life sustaining organ our heart is. An incredible muscle actually. Our heart is a muscle. It constantly flexes it's power as it distributes blood throughout our body taking oxygen and nutrients with and carrying away waste. That's how God created it. I started to think about the condition of my own heart right now--my spiritual heart. I feel like the Lord has been flexing my heart in new ways this past year. Sometimes it just feels stretched. I was thinking about all the new emotions, burdens, praises, desires, love, appreciation, and joy that fill my heart at any given moment because of what I have felt and experienced here in Turkey this past year. To be in a place like this is changing. I found out this week that I have a new spiritual sister. Incredible joy, praise, and love to say the least fill my heart over this. I also talked with a different new sister who is struggling with her family over new changes in her life and is an incredibly hard position. There is the burden, the requests, the pain that fill my heart at the same time. I'm riding on the bus thinking about all that happened this week--the joy and the pain, physically for my grandpa and spiritually for others and am just overwhelmed. I can't help but deeply appreciate the way the Jesus says, 'in this world, you will have trouble, but take heart for I have overcome the world.' He knows that our hearts will be filled with conflicting emotions because there is both trouble and joy in this world. He knows the power of a little muscle, not only physically, but spiritually when He says, 'take heart'.