Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 1129 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
A Broken Heart – Meditation Monday


Wisdom - the final frontier to true knowledge. Welcome to Wisdom-Trek where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before.

Hello, my friend, I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase wisdom and create a living legacy. Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. This is Day 1129 of our trek, and it is time for Meditation Monday. Taking time to relax, refocus, and reprioritize our lives is crucial in order to create a living legacy.

For you, it may just be time alone for quiet reflection. You may utilize structured meditation practices. In my life, meditation includes reading and reflecting on God’s Word and praying. It is a time to renew my mind, refocus on what is most important, and make sure that I am nurturing my soul, mind, and body. As you come along with me on our trek each Meditation Monday, it is my hope and prayer that you too will experience a time for reflection and renewing of your mind. 

Emotionally there is probably no greater pain than that of a broken heart. Whether it is the death of a spouse or close loved one, a failed marriage, or a child that has gone astray as an adult, a broken heart is crushing to us.

In today’s meditation, let us consider…
A Broken Heart


We have all suffered from a broken heart, where the night of our soul seems so dark we wonder if it will ever end. Let me take you back to another such night. Go with me for a moment to witness what was perhaps the darkest and foggiest night in history. The scene is very simple; you’ll recognize it quickly…A grove of twisted olive trees. Ground cluttered with large rocks. A low stone fence. A dark, dark night.

Strain your eyes and attempt to look through the fog. Look closely through the shadowy foliage. See that person? See that solitary figure? What’s he doing? You see that he is face down, flat on the ground. As he picks up his face slightly, you see that it is stained with dirt and tears. His fists are pounding the hard earth. His eyes are wide with a stupor of fear. His long hair matted with salty sweat. As you strain more, you see that his face is spotted. Is that blood on his forehead?

Then you realize that is it Jesus. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before the crucifixion.

Maybe you’ve seen the classic portrait of Christ in the garden. Kneeling beside a big rock. Snow-white robe. Hands peacefully folded in prayer. A look of serenity on his face. Halo over his head. A spotlight from heaven illuminating his golden-brown hair.

Now, I’m no artist, but I can tell you one thing. The man who painted that picture didn’t use the gospel of Mark as a pattern. When Mark wrote about that painful night, he used phrases like: “he became troubled and distressed…and said, 'my soul is crushed with grief to the point of death.' He went on a little farther and fell to the ground.”  Through the dark fog-shrouded night, we see him lying there, and then his voice pierces the still night air as he cries out, “Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”



Does this look like the picture of a saintly Jesus resting in the palm of God? Hardly. Mark used black paint to describe this scene. We see an agonizing, straining, and struggling Jesus. We see Jesus as described in Isaiah 53:3, "He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.