Openheartedness means having the emotional vulnerability to be compassionate and empathic, firstly with yourself, then with others.
In Australia we’re playing with contradictions, it’s summertime thunderstorms and lazy-but-we-are-back-to-work days, while our friends in America are facing major changes in their country, some facing life-threatening disasters.
It feels like we’re on high alert and 2025 has come with warning lights!
Probably like you, I approached the year with high expectations. January is always the season for exclaiming changes we’re going to make. I felt remiss for things I had not done in 2024, so I started … I’m gonna write that blog every month, send that email every week, catalogue my paintings, finish that book, ace my studies – and more! – and add to that all the things going on in our crazy new world calling for attention. I was exhausted thinking about it.
I had not recovered my breath yet from Christmas when my list-making began, then I felt the familiar Holy Spirit tap on my shoulder. “Don’t do that unless your heart is in it.”
What? Of course, my heart is in it! “Really? Is that really what you want to do in 2025?”
How many of you know that the Lord knows you better than you do?
I often spearhead January with prophetic words for the year – like clarity, intentional, prudence – but this year feels different. This word isn’t popping out like a to-do list, it’s more like an invitation.
It’s an awkward word. Openheartedness. It’s a word that melts me.
The Lord is not asking for a rack of achievements, but simply to pursue whatever I do openly with wholeheartedness. Clumsy fat words – openheartedness, wholeheartedness – but words pregnant with calm, peace, and His goodness – and totally lacking in judgement.
Openheartedness means kindness, honesty, and generosity. It means having the emotional vulnerability to be compassionate and empathic. It also means being genuinely receptive to what the Lord has for us, to be surrendered to His heart as well as to our own self. Genuinely receptive means positioned ready to receive.
To be openhearted in all that you do means to be straightforward, with nothing in the way, nothing between you and the Lord. And what usually gets in the way is how we feel about ourselves and how we treat ourselves. Do you honour yourself the way the Lord does? Do you care for yourself the way the Lord does?
What does it actually mean to commit with your whole heart? When we surrender wholeheartedly, what does it look like in our mind, will, and emotions – in other words, our soul?
Openheartedness has a depth of meaning when applied to prophetic art that is way beyond its dictionary definition. That was my discovery this month!
I dived into the significance of surrendering to God, of being “gently busy” as a way of achieving goals without stress, of being boldly honest with myself over the depth of my heart’s desire – without that honesty, how could I possibly commit wholeheartedly to the canvas before me?
Oh halleluiah.
Openheartedness means being vulnerable when I paint. It means diving deep into what He has specifically for me as an individual worshipper first and foremost, and then, only then, to give out to others.
Be blessed to receive, be blessed to give.
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PS. I use a picture here that I snapped at The Audrey Experience, a commercial space dedicated to her legacy in the flagship Tiffany’s store on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. I use it because for many – rightly or wrongly – she personifies openheartedness. She is a symbol that epitomises grace and mercy. “Faith expressing itself through love.”