The Bottom Of My Heart

 The Bottom Of My Heart 

By Paul McCann

The day everything came apart and his heart was torn into pieces was the day he made an exit from life and he walked away into a cold place on the empty streets of the city where there was no mercy or hope . He lived for years as a derelict , scrounging food from rubbish bins and begging for money from people passing by the doorway where he slept at night .

He had just about had enough and the night he was going take his life a man passing by saw him as he was going to walk in front of a city tram and he reached out and grabbed him . The good Samaritan was a bishop who was visiting the city from another county and he spoke to the poor derelict with compassion and love .

“My child don’t leave the world like this . You have so much goodness inside your heart and there is still hope that you have never found “

The derelict began to curse and swear .

“Why did you stop me , you have no idea what I’ve been through”
|The bishop kept infusing kind and comforting words.

“You might think your life is awful , you might feel worthless , you might think that you’ve had enough but that’s only because you can’t see what waiting a little further down the road “

The derelict responded .

“I’ve been on a long , long road to misery and there is no way back for me only a way out from this living hell “

The bishop put his arms around the derelict and silently prayed over him then said ,

“ I want you to look deeper into the very bottom of your heart now and tell me what you see.“

The derelict felt a peace come over him . He had a very brief experience of looking at his entire life in seconds and understanding why things ended up the way they did and he said ,

“I see a little spark of light “

The bishop said.

“That is the light of hope “

Those words hit the very bottom of his heart and he knew in that moment that the only way to go was up .

“Why would you care about me ?”

The derelict said and the bishop replied ,’

“A long time ago at the bottom of my heart I found a light that was given to me and  I knew I had to share it with other people . The light is hope and now that you have seen that as well, I know you are going to be all right .“

The derelict smiled and said.

“Thank you for giving me back that spark of light that I lost many years ago . I was broken hearted after I lost all my family in a terrible car crash”.

“You will carry on and find a new life now. Trust me . So, I’m going to find a place for you to stay for a little while until you’re able to find your way”.

The bishop was able to organise a room with someone he knew who worked for a support agency connected with the church .

The derelict was able to get food and shelter and was soon on his way to recovery .  

The light he saw in his heart had made a home and he found a place where people  cared for him . After a while he started doing odd jobs for the people who had helped him get back on his feet .

Then one day when he least expected it someone came into his life and he was instantly attracted to her for the first time in a long time he felt he was truly in love ,

With this lady and he told her m

“As long as I live and even longer , you’ll  mean more that the whole world to me”.

She told him.

“ Never change your mind about how you feel because I feel the same way about you  and I will hold on to that because I love you for who you are and even who you were before I met you “

They were deeply and truly in love and on the day of their wedding the bishop was present . The couple wrote their own vows and both of them stated ,

“II will love you from the bottom of my heart “

The bishop spoke at the ceremony about the light of love that he saw in both of the newlyweds and how that light would be able to make a change in other people’s lives in whatever they would choose to do .

Aftere the wedding they both went to work for the Missions in Africa helping people in the little villages where 1 out of three people were dying from AIDS . Some of the villagers needed little things in their everyday lives like a bicycle or a ladder or even a flashlight and that’s where the two field workers came in . They would ring around big companies and ask them for whatever was needed . In most cases most of the large companies were only too glad to be able to help and with caring and loving support the people in the villages found also that light that shone in the bottom of their hearts that gave them the ability to carry on in their own difficult situations .

The End