Relational Hearts: 1

The Relational Heart: Discovering The Heart Which Is Relational by Design Why do we crave love, trust and belonging, yet so often find these things elusive?The Relational Heart is an exploration of the human heart and the dynamic forces at work within that determine our ability to connect and relate to others. Through an examination of identity, empathy, trust, morality and relational law, community and family, wounds and restoration, this work seeks to uncover how the relational capacities of the heart operate and how the condition of our heart determines the ways in which we experience and express love.Why do we so often crave connection and community and yet find ourselves unable to truly engage relationally? Why do rules generate order but rarely love within the heart? Why does the heart that has been continually thwarted in its longing to relate, connect and belong begin to close down and protect itself or seek to become self-sufficient? Why is it that the damage done to the heart often takes on a life of its own long after the initial hurt has passed?At the very heart of these questions is trust, for it is in the ability to trust that we find our hearts opened up to others and, when that trust is damaged, protected from them. But why do our hearts so often find themselves in this state of war and distrust? Are there not deeper issues at play?Yet even then, understanding why the heart finds itself in such a state is not enough. If it is love that our hearts crave, then where can we find it? What is this Source that seems to well up within us, bringing our hearts to life? Can our hearts truly survive without it?The Relational Heart seeks to delve into the heart of the matter, uncovering the realities of trust and wounds and their impact on our relational abilities and encouraging the reader to consider what it is that their heart truly needs to experience the love that it craves.But is not the question then, if our hearts were indeed created to know and experience love, where can they find the Source of that love?