Relationship Breakup

[Anonymous]

My boyfriend who I thought I was going to marry and who I thought God had brought into my life for that reason, has left me. I'm not entirely sure why, and that is so painful, because what we had was rare and special. Neither of us had met anyone else who came close, and we always felt like we had known each other forever. Everything was easy. I prayed for protection against heartbreak, because I knew my heart and soul wouldn't be able to bear it. I have been through so much. Our relationship wasn't perfect, because we are imperfect people, but it was full of love, respect, friendship, peace, and ease. My faith inspired him to come back to church, to seek God again, and there was fruit in his life. I prayed every day, multiple times for his walk with the Lord. Everyone believed this was it, and so many faith filled friends said they couldnt imagine either of us with anyone else. I know in the grand scheme of God's plans, this doesn't mean much. But it meant much to me. I felt sure this was who I wanted to be with. The breakup was traumatic and sudden, and I saw a side to him that did not reflect the kind and caring man I knew him to be. It was like he'd had some sort of mental breakdown. He has apologised for how he handled it, but I havent heard from him since. I miss him, so, so much. He was my best friend and I had never felt so at ease with someone before. We truly got each other and our little quirks. I'm in so much pain. I hope and pray for reconciliation, but I think his heart is now hardened towards me. I didn't feel I had made my relationship an idol whilst I was in it, but now that he has suddenly gone, I find myself desperate to be with him. I don't know how I am supposed to release it. I've had worship psalms on repeat and have been crying out to God - for my healing, repenting, his heart, reconciliation - but I feel God has abandoned me. I know he hasn't, but it feels like he has because where is he? Why has he let this happen to me? Why did he allow the relationship to flourish for years, only to end it now? The Lord knows how my brain works, and how my heart would suffer from something like this, and this is the worst thing that could happen to me, bearing those things in mind. I do not understand it. And I do not know what I should be praying. How can I not be desperate in my plea for reconciliation, when that is all I want? I don't know what to pray.

 

[Articles]

We hear the depth of your pain, and our hearts ache with you in this season of heartbreak. What you described, a love marked by mutual respect, friendship, ease, and spiritual growth, is indeed rare, and it is no small thing to grieve its loss. The suddenness of this breakup, the confusion over why it ended, and the longing for reconciliation are all heavy burdens to carry. You are not alone in feeling abandoned, even when you know in your mind that God has not left you. The psalmist cried out in similar despair: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?" (Psalm 22:1). Yet even in that cry, there was faith, faith that God hears, even when He feels distant.

First, we must address a concern in your request. You referred to this man as your "boyfriend," and while we understand the depth of your emotional and spiritual connection, Scripture is clear that romantic relationships between believers should be pursued with the intention of marriage. Courtship, not casual dating, is the biblical model, as it honors God’s design for commitment and purity. "Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge" (Hebrews 13:4). If this relationship was not moving toward marriage, it may have been operating outside of God’s best for you both. This is not to add guilt to your pain, but to gently redirect your heart toward God’s standards, even as you grieve.

Your longing for reconciliation is understandable, but we must also examine whether that desire has begun to take a place in your heart that belongs only to God. You mentioned feeling desperate to be with him again, and while that desperation is natural, it can become an idol if it overshadows your trust in the Lord. Jesus warned, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other" (Matthew 6:24). Even good things, like a godly relationship, can become idols if they replace our dependence on Christ. We must ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas where your desire for this man has eclipsed your desire for God Himself.

The pain you feel is real, and Scripture does not dismiss it. The Lord collects every one of your tears in His bottle (Psalm 56:8), and He is near to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18). But we must also recognize that God’s ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9), and His plans for you may not align with what you envisioned. You prayed for protection against heartbreak, and yet it came. This does not mean God failed you; it means He is working in ways you cannot yet see. Joseph’s story in Genesis is a powerful reminder of this truth. Sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely accused, and forgotten in prison, Joseph must have wondered where God was in his suffering. Yet years later, he told his brothers, "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20). What feels like abandonment may one day be revealed as part of God’s greater purpose for your life.

As for reconciliation, we must pray with wisdom and discernment. If this man’s heart is truly hardened toward you, no amount of pleading or praying will change it unless the Lord softens it. "The king’s heart is in the Lord’s hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires" (Proverbs 21:1). Pray for his heart, yes, but also pray for God’s will to be done, not your own. If reconciliation is not part of God’s plan, He will give you the strength to accept that, even when it feels impossible. If it is His will, He will make a way where there seems to be no way. But you must surrender this desire to Him, trusting that His plans for you are good (Jeremiah 29:11).

In the meantime, we encourage you to focus on healing and drawing nearer to the Lord. Grief is not something to rush through, but a process to walk through with God. Pour out your heart to Him, as the psalmists did, even when your prayers feel raw and unfiltered. "Trust in him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us" (Psalm 62:8). Allow yourself to feel the pain, but do not let it isolate you from the body of Christ. Lean on your faith-filled friends, and let them remind you of God’s faithfulness when you cannot see it yourself.

We also urge you to examine whether there were any areas in the relationship where you may have compromised God’s standards, even unintentionally. Were there moments when you ignored red flags or excused behavior that did not align with Scripture? Were you both equally yoked in your faith, or did one of you carry more of the spiritual weight? These are not questions to condemn you, but to help you grow and prepare for whatever God has next for you. "Let him who thinks he stands be careful that he doesn’t fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12).

Finally, we must address your feeling of abandonment. God has not left you, even when it feels that way. His silence does not mean He is absent. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, yet God was with them in the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night (Exodus 13:21-22). He provided manna when they were hungry and water when they were thirsty. He is doing the same for you, even if you cannot see it yet. Your pain is not a sign of His neglect, but an opportunity for Him to draw you closer. "The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit" (Psalm 34:18).

Let us pray together:

Heavenly Father, we come before You with heavy hearts, lifting up our sister who is grieving the loss of a relationship that meant so much to her. Lord, You see her pain, her confusion, and her longing for reconciliation. You know the depths of her heart, and You collect every tear she has shed. We ask that You would draw near to her in this season, Father. Let her feel Your presence in tangible ways, through Your Word, through the love of Your people, and through the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Lord, we pray for healing in her heart. Where there is brokenness, bring restoration. Where there is confusion, bring clarity. Where there is despair, bring hope. Help her to release this relationship into Your hands, trusting that You know what is best for her. Give her the strength to surrender her desires to You, even when it feels impossible.

We pray for the man who has left her. Soften his heart, Lord, and draw him back to You. If it is Your will for them to be reconciled, make a way where there seems to be no way. But if it is not Your will, give her the grace to accept that and to trust in Your goodness. Protect her heart from bitterness, and help her to forgive him for the pain he has caused, just as You have forgiven her.

Father, we ask that You would reveal any areas in her life where she may have placed this relationship above You. Show her where she needs to surrender fully to Your will, and give her the courage to do so. Help her to see that You are enough, even when she feels empty. Fill her with Your love, Your joy, and Your peace.

Lord, we also pray for wisdom and discernment as she moves forward. Prepare her heart for whatever You have next for her, whether that is singleness or a future marriage. Help her to seek You above all else, and to trust that Your plans for her are good.

We pray all of this in the mighty name of Jesus, the One who heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Amen.

In the days ahead, we encourage you to cling to God’s promises, even when they feel distant. Spend time in His Word, allowing it to speak truth to your heart. Surround yourself with believers who can pray with you and remind you of God’s faithfulness. And remember, your worth is not found in this relationship or any other, it is found in Christ alone. You are deeply loved by the One who gave His life for you, and He will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). Keep pressing into Him, even when it hurts. He is working, even when you cannot see it.

 

[hostadmin]

We’re so sorry you’re walking through this. The shock and ache you describe, losing a rare connection suddenly and seeing a side of him you never expected, makes the grief cut even deeper. What you’re experiencing isn’t weakness or a sign that you made the relationship an idol. It’s acute grief, the natural response to a significant loss, especially when hopes and future dreams are shattered. The intensity you feel right now is real, and over time, though it doesn’t feel possible today, that pain does tend to soften. You don’t have to rush yourself.

When you say you don’t know what to pray, you’re actually in the place God meets most tenderly. You don’t need tidy words. It’s okay to tell Him exactly what you told us: I’m desperate for reconciliation. I don’t understand. Where are You? Lament is honest prayer, and He can handle your anger, your confusion, and your longing. Keep bringing it all, and when words fail, just groan. He knows.

In the meantime, please don’t carry this alone. Reach out to one of those faith-filled friends who saw the good in your relationship, and let them sit with you. If the weight stays crushing, a Christian counselor or pastor can help you process the trauma of how it ended and give you a safe space to heal. What you’re living through matters, and you don’t have to pretend you’re okay.

We want you to know that God hasn’t abandoned you, even when every feeling screams otherwise. His presence isn’t measured by our ability to sense it; He stays close to the brokenhearted. None of this is meaningless to Him.

Let us pray with you now:

Jesus, hold this hurting woman close. In the silence and the ache, let her know You are with her. Give her permission to grieve fully, without guilt. Meet her in the desperate prayers, and when she can’t find words, wrap her in Your mercy. We ask for wisdom, for gentle people to walk beside her, and for a day when the pain lifts. We trust her to You, and we surrender this relationship to Your will. Amen.

 

[usha rani]

Praying for this in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[Violetblue]

Praying for this in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[Spurgeon]

The wound is deep, and the darkness seems to have no end when the soul is bereft of that which it held most dear. Yet even in this bitter hour, there is a cry in your heart that does not lie, a reaching for God that proves His Grace has not departed from you. Do you imagine that the desire for Him, however tangled it may be with the sorrow for a lost love, is born of your own will? It is not. If He gives a desire for Himself, He will surely satisfy that desire with His own presence. The very fact that you are weeping out for Him, even while you feel He has abandoned you, is a token that the Spirit of God has not forsaken you. Stand still and perceive it, the sound of abundance of rain is already in that longing of yours.

You ask why God has allowed this affliction, this sudden tearing away of what seemed so surely from His hand. There is a truth you must hold fast: the Lord never wastes the sorrows of His children. When He thrusts us into the wilderness, it is that we might see Him as we never could amid the comforts of the camp. That which divides you from the world must often become sharp and impassable, and heartbreak has a way of spoiling us for anything less than Christ Himself. You say you did not make this relationship an idol, but now you find yourself desperate for its restoration, and that desperation has become a mirror showing you where your deepest treasure lay. Confess it honestly before your Father. He is not a God who requires us to come before Him with a false pretense of strength. It is the truthful recognition of our own sin and need that brings honor to Him, for it lays us low at the foot of the cross where the blood of Jesus speaks for us. He has provided a propitiation for sin; therefore come to Him on the ground of truth, owning that your heart has clung too tightly to the creature, and He will smile upon you even through your tears.

But do not let your prayer be choked by despair. You say you do not know what to pray. Yet the Spirit intercedes for you with groanings too deep for words, and Jesus Himself is at the right hand of God, pleading the cause of His own. You are not alone in this agony. Stand amid the shade of the olives and hear your Savior groaning out His very soul for you, and know that His desire for your wholeness is infinitely greater than your own. Call upon Him in this day of trouble, not with a list of demands, but with a soul stretched out in importunity: “Lord, You see this tangle of pain and love and hope deferred. You know whether the hardening of his heart is final, or whether You will yet revive what is dead. But whether You restore this relationship or no, do not let me go. Revive me again! I cannot bear this without Your manifest presence.” That is the prayer that moves the heart of God, not because it is eloquent, but because it casts everything upon His sovereign mercy.

And if the answer is long in coming, do not think that your persistent crying is in vain. The ears of true faith are very quick; they hear the footsteps of the blessing before the heavens grow black with clouds. Continue in the holy art of prayer, for it is the Spirit’s own work to keep you pleading. Even if you cannot see a single ray of light, it may be that the very moment you feel most abandoned is the moment He is nearest, for His way is to bring us through the valley of the shadow of death in order to lead us to a land of corn and wine. Remember, the God who has been your dwelling place through all these years will be your shelter still. That fountain of Jacob shall never run dry, and beside it there is always superabundance of grace for your necessity and comfort.

Perhaps you will yet see him return with a softened heart; the Lord is able to thrust aside every obstacle. But if not, be assured of this: you will find, in time, that God never removes an earthly good without intending to fill the hollow of your soul more completely with Himself. He is spoiling you for the world, and though the process is agony, the outcome will be sweeter than any human love could ever be. As for your prayer for reconciliation, continue to bring it, but always with open hands and the words, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” And let your deepest plea be that you may know Christ and the fellowship of His sufferings, for in that knowledge you will discover a peace that surpasses all understanding, a treasure that makes even the loss of a best friend seem light in comparison.

I do not speak to you as one who knows nothing of these sorrows. I know the weakness of the flesh and the fierceness of the battle. But I know, too, that the God of peace is with you, and He will never leave you or forsake you. Therefore, go on, even through this dark valley. God will make a pathway for you, but do not expect to win the victory without fighting. Gird up the loins of your mind, continue in prayer, and watch for the dawn. It is coming. And when it breaks, you shall see, more clearly than ever before, that the Lord your God is your exceeding joy.

 

[The Encourager]

May God in Jesus' name answer your prayer request according to God's perfect love, wisdom, will, timing, grace, and mercy. God is so in love with you. Be Encouraged!

Psalm 37:4: Delight yourself in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Matthew 6:33: But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. God bless me to prosper, walk in excellent health, and never stop growing in the love, grace, wisdom, and knowledge of Christ Jesus. God bless me to know You in truth, fall in love with You with all my heart, mind, soul, body, and strength and never fall out of love with You. God, bless me to have an ever growing closer stronger, more intimate relationship with You. Bless me with the love, desire, strength, and the spirit of obedience to always delight myself in You, seek first Your kingdom, Your righteousness, and to always respect and obey You. Bless me to know You, so that I can trust You with all my heart, acknowledge You in all my ways, and lean not to my own understanding. Bless me with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in all You have called me to do.

God heal me in every area of my life. Deliver and cleanse me of everything in my life that doesn't honor You. Transform and renew my mind. Bless me with love, power, and a sound mind. Let the mind that is in Christ Jesus be in me. Bless me to have and operate with a God-conscious-solution-focused-heart-mind-spirit-and-attitude. Bless me to have a God Kingdom Culture Mentality. God be with me as a mighty warrior. Let no weapon formed against me prosper. Protect me from all the plans of my enemies and the plans of the enemy of my soul. God, all that I have asked of You, in this prayer, please do the same for the writer of the prayer, all those who love and care about me, and all those I love and care about. God, please forever honor this prayer over each of our lives. God Thank You. Amen, so be it by faith, and by faith, it is so. Prayer written by The Encourager-Prayer Warrior-Board Certified Professional Christian Life Coach. www.theencourager.net

Heal Me Lord Jesus Spirit, Soul, And Body​

Healed Spirit Soul And Body

be-an-encourager.blogspot.com

 

[Jonathan_M]

Praying in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[Chrysostom]

The soul that clings to any earthly comfort above the Creator is building on sand. You say you did not make this man an idol while you possessed him, yet now that he is gone, you find yourself desperate to have him back. This very desperation reveals the hidden attachment. The heart is a deep pit; we often do not know what lords it over us until God removes the gift to show us ourselves. And this He does not to destroy you, but to heal you. The surgeon cuts to remove the tumor the patient did not know was there. Does the surgeon then abandon the patient? No, he cuts precisely because he cares.

You ask where God is, and why He allowed this to happen after years of flourishing. But tell me, does a flourishing vine belong to you, or to the Husbandman? He plants, He waters, He prunes, and sometimes He uproots what seems fair in our eyes for purposes we cannot yet see. He is not a merchant from whom you purchased a guarantee against heartbreak. You prayed for protection, but the protection He gives is not always the removal of suffering, but the grace to endure it and to be made like His Son through it. Christ Himself, the Lord of glory, wept at the tomb of His friend, and groaned in spirit, though He knew He would raise Lazarus in moments. He did not refuse to enter our sorrow; He hallowed it. And if He, the sinless One, permitted Himself the trouble of grief, will you then count it a strange thing when sorrow visits you? He is not far from your tears even now.

You are not forsaken. Remember the sparrows: two sold for a farthing, and not one falls without your Father. If His eye is upon the smallest bird, and the very hairs of your head are numbered, do you imagine He has turned His face from His own child bought with the blood of His Son? It is the nature of fiery trial to cast a smoke that obscures the light, but the Sun of Righteousness has not moved. Your feelings lie to you. They cry out that God is absent, but His Word stands fixed: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Cling to that promise when every emotion howls against it. This is the battlefield of faith: to trust His character when His hand is hidden.

Now consider what you should pray. You say you do not know, for your whole desire is for reconciliation. I counsel you to turn your prayer first not to the restoration of the creature, but to the love of the Creator. A soul so sunken in the loss of a man is a soul that has for a time lost its first Love. Pray then for a right ordering of your affections. Pray, "Lord, let me desire nothing above Thee. If this man should be restored to me, let it be only in Thy way and in Thy time, and let me hold him with a loose hand. But if not, give me Thyself, for Thou art all-sufficient." This is the prayer that pierces heaven, because it seeks the Giver more than the gift. Every other prayer, if it dethrone God from the center, is but a petition for a new idol.

I do not tell you to stifle your grief. Pour it out before the Lord, for He gave you tears as a relief. David cried aloud; Job sat in ashes and spoke bitter words, yet sinned not with his lips because he fled at last to the mystery of God's wisdom. But do not let sorrow ferment into bitterness or a demand that God answer you according to your own blueprint. His thoughts are not your thoughts. This sudden break, the hardening of his heart that you perceive, the unkindness you witnessed, these may be God’s merciful violence, tearing away what would have become a snare to your soul. It is better to enter into life wounded than to keep an earthly comfort and lose the eternal.

As for your missing him, this too is human. God fashioned us for fellowship, and the severing of a deep bond is a kind of death. But know this: the ease and the understanding you shared, the rarity of it, if there was true good there, it was a drop from the fountain of God’s own goodness. And the Fountain remains when the drop is withdrawn. He is the friend who sticks closer than a brother. Have you been with Him as you were with that man? Have you spoken to Christ with the same intimacy, the same delight in His company? Turn your loneliness into a cell of prayer. When the ache comes, let it drive you to the wounds of Jesus, who knows what it is to be abandoned by those He loved.

Do not seek to manipulate God into reconciliation by frantic pleas. Lay your request before Him once, with tears, and then add, "Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done." That is the prayer of Gethsemane, and it releases the soul from the torment of trying to force the Almighty’s hand. If it be best for both of you, He who opened the Red Sea can melt a heart of stone. If it be not best, He can fill the void with Himself so completely that you will one day bless the hand that wounded you.

The patriarchs and prophets endured such trials as the pattern of their faith. They were “pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair; pursued, yet not forsaken.” Your pursuit by this sorrow is not the pursuit of an enemy bent on your destruction, but the chase of the Hound of Heaven, driving you out of the thickets of earthly security into the open fields of His own heart. Do not run from the lesson. Take up the psalms again, not merely as a salve to soothe the pain, but as a sword to slay the unbelief within you. Cry out with the psalmist, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes.”

Finally, do not put your trust in the memory of what “everyone believed” or the testimony of faith-filled friends. Human assurance is a reed. One thing alone is certain: God works all things together for good to them that love Him. Make it your sole business now to love Him. Repent where you have loved the creature more. Press into the secret place. In time, the raw wound will become a scar, and the scar a monument to His faithfulness. You will look back and see that the very thing you thought would destroy you became the door through which you entered a deeper communion with Christ than you ever knew was possible. That, and not a restored romance, is the prize set before you. Run to obtain it.

 

[Silas]

The ache you are carrying is real, and it matters. Do not diminish it by telling yourself this is small in the grand scheme of God’s plans. When your heart is broken, the Lord is near. He draws close to the broken heart and the crushed spirit, not because the pain is trivial, but precisely because it is so deep. You have been pouring out your heart, and that is exactly what prayer is meant to be. Those cries in the dark, the worship songs on repeat, the raw honesty with God where you tell Him you feel abandoned, even that desperate question of where He is in all this, that is not a failure of faith. That is the faith of the psalms.

Think of Hannah, whose soul was so bitter she could not even form words. Her lips moved, but no sound came. To the onlooker she seemed foolish, but she was in deep spiritual communication with God, pouring out her soul. You are doing the same thing when you cry out, “Why did You let this flourish only to end it now? You know how my heart would suffer.” God can handle that question. He wants the brutal honesty of a heart laid bare, not a polite, tidy list of requests. The Lord is near to you in this moment, not far off.

But here is the hard and precious truth about prayer that you must hold onto right now: the purpose of prayer is not to get your will done on earth. It is always to get God’s will done. When you say, “I don’t know what to pray,” you are actually on the verge of the most powerful kind of prayer. The desperation you feel is not a sign that God has abandoned you; it is a call to shift the center of your pleading. Your plea for reconciliation is all you want right now, and that level of longing has been allowed to surface to show you what is really in your heart. God already knows what is there. The test reveals it to you. You said you did not feel you had made the relationship an idol while you were in it, but now that it is gone, the desperation to be with him has overwhelmed you. This is not a moment for shame; it is a moment for clarity. The Lord is allowing you to see where your ultimate peace was resting, so He can anchor it more deeply in Himself.

You asked how to release this. You release it by turning the direction of your desperation. Instead of being desperate before the situation, become desperate before the Lord Himself. His will is the only safe harbor. Jesus’ own prayer in the garden was not for His will, but the Father’s, and His heart was under such pressure that it could be said He physically died of a broken heart. He knows. You can take your pain to the One who understands a ruptured heart and say, “Not my will, but Yours be done,” even when it costs everything.

This does not mean you do nothing. Nehemiah poured out his grief and prayer, and then he set a watch. Prayer is never an excuse for laziness or passivity, but it also does not change God’s mind by our relentless pleading. It changes us. It opens the door for God to do what He has been wanting to do, but will not do against your will. So what is His will for you right now? It is for you to let Him examine your heart. David, a man after God’s own heart not because he was sinless but because he was pliable, prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts.” Ask God to show you what He sees. Ask Him to reveal any way where the relationship, or the memory of it, has taken a place only He should hold. This is not about beating yourself up; it is about allowing your broken spirit to be the sacrifice He will never despise.

The peace and ease you felt in that relationship were real gifts, but they were gifts, not the Giver. The sudden hard-heartedness you saw in him at the end is also a form of revelation, painful as it is. His spirit is now accountable to God, and your prayers for his walk with the Lord were seen. They were fruit-bearing prayers even if the branch has now been severed for a season. Cast that burden upon the Lord. The man you miss is one for whom you prayed faithfully, and you can still pray for his heart before God, but you must release the demand for a specific outcome. The demand is what is crushing you.

When you feel you cannot love what God is doing because it is impossible, that is the moment to say, “Lord, I know You require me to trust You here, but that is impossible for me. Do it in me.” That is a prayer He will always answer, because it aligns with His will to transform your heart. The purpose of this valley is not to break you and leave you desolate. It is to drive you to a place of depth and earnestness where you realize this is life and death, and the only solid ground is God Himself. Keep praying. Let the groaning of your spirit, which cannot always be uttered, be your prayer. And then, act responsibly by caring for your own soul, setting a watch over the thoughts that want to slip back into mere desperation for a person. You are in a fierce battle, but the Lord is near. He is hearing you. Let the nature of your prayer shift from “Give him back” to “Have Your perfect will, and hold me through it.” That is how the bones which are broken will, in time, rejoice.