Aint Nothing But a Heartache, a Mistake
The song continues into the chorus, and I’m sure you remember it, it goes like this:
Tell me why! Aint nothing but a heartache
Tell me why! Aint nothing but a mistake
Tell me why! I never want to hear you say
I want it that way
You’ll recall from the last two devotions that the two verses made me wonder if I had been saying that God is my fire and one desire while living worlds apart from Him. And as I considered the times when I have drifted apart from God, this chorus seemed to give me more insight.
“Tell me why” it says – why do I live this way, saying one thing while living another? Well, firstly there are times when it “aint nothing but a heartache”. In other words, there are times when heartache and pain pulls me away from the God I love and follow.
Seek God's Comfort
In fact Shereen and I experienced a great deal of loss last year, and then to top it off a few weeks ago one our cats died very suddenly. Now some of you would think “eh, no big deal”. But those of you who are pet lovers will know the grief that comes with losing a precious animal. Shereen and I were shattered. We’ve lived in a bit of a daze for a while. And one day we were talking about, saying that we can’t let our grief get in the way of our lives. Yes, we can grieve, but we have to make sure we don’t fall apart. Heartache has a way of paralyzing us, and many people in times of grief drift from God because they’re angry or upset and just push God out.
I don’t want to let ‘nothing but a heartache’ cause me to live two worlds apart from my God. In fact, my heartache should lead me closer to my God, because He is the one who brings comfort and peace when we need it most. Let’s go to God with our pain, with our heartaches, our loss, and not drift from Him in such times.
But the song also says “aint nothing but a mistake”. And in Wesleyan churches we believe that there is a difference between mistakes and willful sins. We believe that the Holy Spirit give Christians the power to stop sinning willfully. We have the power to say no to temptation when we’re Christians. And we’re called to live holy lives by doing so. But we’ll always be prone to making mistakes – bad judgement calls that end up dishonouring God even though it wasn’t our intention. And so we believe we’ll always be saying “forgive us our trespasses” because, even if we’ve avoided willful sin, mistakes still creep in and need God’s mercy.
Bridge the Gap
I’ve often found that mistakes or sins can make me avoid God. When I feel guilty for not being the person of God I could be, I often just avoid getting close and personal with Him. I can still play church and wear the Christian name, but my mistake or sin makes me live two worlds apart from Him again.
But in John’s first letter to the early Christians he said: “If anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 2:1–2 NIV11)
So my friends, tell me why do we live two worlds apart from God? Often it is a heartache that pulls us away, or a sin or mistake that pulls us away. But God is our comforter and our advocate – and if we have pain or guilt we should go to Him, not away from Him.
Take the time to go to Him today – because he ‘never wants to hear you say’ that your heartache or sin is keeping you from Him.
