Unhardened Hearts

I'm writing this mostly for sensitive people. I am a sensitive person. Everyone is susceptible to having a hardened heart, but the sensitive person is especially susceptible. I have seen some in my family enter into old age with bitterness and coldness, seemingly impervious to authentic emotion, and all of them were the very sensitive from the beginning. My question is, how can I prevent a hardened heart from forming within me, since I am one of them? Since, as a sensitive person, I am particularly prone to a long memory, and to be aware of (perceived) injustices, and rash thoughts, preventing myself from having a hardened heart will require more diligence than a normal person would have to exercise.

First, I think it's worthwhile to try to sympathize with those who have hardened hearts. A hardened heart is actually a great asset in many ways. Primarily, it protects a wounded person from further wounds. It makes a person impervious to harsh treatment and insults. It allows a person to exercise a degree of power and control. The hardened heart provides a significant survival advantage for those who adopt it, especially in worldly affairs. It is like scar tissue on the soul, a sort of instinctive defense mechanism within the psyche.

But, having a hardened heart comes at a cost. At the price of being in a position of power, being impervious, being invulnerable, a person with a hardened heart also loses a part of his humanity. He becomes a bit of a shell of a human being: Incapable of being molded or changed. Incapable of learning and growing wise. Incapable of loving and being loved. The "hardened" attribute is accurate.

To refuse to have a hardened heart, then, will come at a price. It means to be vulnerable. It means to surrender power and control. It means to become susceptible to the whims of others. It will, in some ways, put one's very survival in peril. The one who wishes to make it out of life unscathed, unduped, unhumiliated, will sacrifice his humanity to achieve this. Having a meek and soft heart is not for the faint of heart.

When I look at the icon of Christ the Bridegroom, I see a Man who did not wish to make it out of life unscathed, unduped, unhumiliated. I see a Man susceptible to the power and control of others. I see a Man who can and will bleed, can and will be spat upon and mocked. He did not have to take on any of this; He could have been imperturbable, invulnerable, unmovable; He is God. He chose otherwise, though, when He took on our humanity in its fullness. There was never a Man more a human being than Christ. He is the Image of Man glorified. He is Man glorified. By His own words, He is "meek and humble of heart."

This places in perspective all of His sayings about turning the cheek, being radically and readily forgiving, and giving more than one thinks he can give. The Gospel is not a survival plan for those who want to make it out of life unscathed, or want to save face. The Gospel shows us how to be fully human. For the glory of God is the living man, and the living man is he who has and follows Christ, meek and humble of heart.