If it is late, and your heart is heavy, this page is for you.
Dear friend,
I do not know what tonight has been for you. Maybe a marriage has gone quiet, and the silence at dinner followed you to bed. Maybe you are tired in a way sleep does not fix. Maybe something that happened a long time ago is still in the room.
I will not hand you a program at this hour. I only want to tell you two true things, and ask you one gentle question.
The first true thing: you were made for love. Not the soft word we spend on tacos and playlists. The old word. Scripture calls it hesed: steadfast, loyal, covenant love that pursues even when we turn away. The love of a Father who sees His child a long way off, and runs.
The second true thing: whatever you are feeling right now is not the problem. It is the proof that love is present. Nobody grieves what they did not love. Nobody fears for what they do not treasure. Your heavy heart is not malfunctioning tonight. It is love, still moving.
So here is the gentle question, and there is no hurry in it. Right now, closest to the surface, are you feeling…
You are being invited to sit with it for a moment. Notice where it lives in your body. Notice what it is like to simply make space for this feeling, instead of managing it.
There is no rush. The page is waiting with you.
This is a door, not a lid. The verse is not here to end the feeling or to hurry you out of it. Some nights the ache stays, and the promise is true anyway, and He stays too.
And friend, if you touched one of those words, you have already done the beginning: noticing what you feel. Noticing what love is longing for follows. And learning how to respond to those longings, with what we call the seven sacred skills, becomes the path to what you are longing for most: peace, and freedom. None of that is tonight’s assignment. It is only tonight’s hope.
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
Augustine · Confessions
Sixteen centuries old, and written about tonight. The restless heart is not broken. It is homing.
You do not have to figure anything out tonight. But you also do not have to be alone with it. I read every one of these myself. If you would like me to know you are here, tell me. Two words are enough.
Tell Joanna: “I’m here”Or simply email joanna@joypathcoaching.com
And when you are ready: your story: heard, held, hope uncovered · read the whole story · walk it with others
However tonight ends, hear this before you sleep: the Father is not waiting for you to compose yourself. He is already looking down the road for you. And He runs.
Joanna