Breaks My Heart

What breaks your heart?

I’ve thought about this question a lot throughout my life, starting about the age of 12.  I knew there was a stirring in my soul but I didn’t quite understand it.  Why was I drawn to serving others? Was it just part of my stubborn personality or my independent spirit? My deep need to not let someone else take care of me because there were so many people truly in need all around me? After all, I was born able-bodied with all my limbs, my five senses, the crazy ability to run a 10k with no training, and the gift to make homemade Mac n Cheese better than my momma.

I remember when my cousin met Mother Theresa - I was beyond jealous.    There wasn't even a word for how desperately I had wished it was me who had met her.   We were not raised Catholic and I had never stepped foot in a Catholic church that I could remember.  So why was I so drawn to this older lady that wore a covering over her head and lived in another country?    Was it part of God’s stirring?

I don't know the exact age that I first heard about children being sold, sometimes by their own parents, into a life of slavery.  Slavery comes in many forms and sometimes the first time someone is sold into slavery is immediately after they are born.  They truly know no other life than that where they are a slave to someone you and I would think were our mother and/or father.   I wept at this news.   I knew I needed to do something about it.   I knew God was calling me to something greater than myself, something greater than anything I could comprehend. But I had no idea what that meant.

What breaks my heart?   There are over 14 million slaves in the world TODAY!    Not 1,000 years ago, not 100 years ago...TODAY!   FOURTEEN MILLION.   That's more people than the entire population of the country in which I am currently living.   Think about that for a second 

As life is passing me by much quicker than I was prepared for...I'm really praying about how I can make a difference in this world.   How I can leave my mark, far after I am gone.   Not a big mark, actually....more a dent.   And God keeps calling me back to that story of slavery I heard one Sunday night, listening to a missionary in church.

What breaks your heart?   What keeps coming to the forefront of your thoughts when you realize there is an aching in your heart that you can't quite figure out?  What makes you weep when you hear stories? 

This Christmas, during the hustle and bustle, consider for a moment what is stirring in your spirit.   It's not the amount of ham or turkey you ate during Christmas dinner.  It's not the mulled wine or the gingerbread cookies or the fruitcake Aunt Beatrice brought over. 

That stirring in your heart is calling you to ACTION.   Right now that may just be praying for your next move, your next step.    Or it may be something more drastic.   Whatever it is...don't ignore it.  

Maybe what breaks your heart is the homeless guy on the street corner as you get on the freeway every morning.  Maybe it's the single mom you see faithfully every Sunday, bringing her little ones to children's church in hand-me-down clothes.
Maybe it's the wayword dogs in your neighborhood that need a good home.
Maybe it's that family down the street, whose car breaks down with 5 kids in the back seat.
Or maybe it's the sweet face of a little boy playing in the dirt with cars made out of rocks because he has no toy trucks.

Whatever it is, whatever breaks your heart - I want you to ask yourself this question - SO WHAT? 

What does that mean to you? 

I don't know about you but I have been blessed beyond measure.  Completely undeserved and unmerited but I am blessed.   I may not have a lot of money but I'm blessed in so many other ways.  God has blessed each and everyone of us in one way or another.  Some of us in tangible ways,  others non-tangible ways, but nonetheless we are blessed.    So take that blessing now and bless others.

Friends, we were made for so much more.  God has called us to be His hands and His feet to a world that may only see Jesus through us.   How are you going to show God's love.  Are you going to turn around and walk away because you are scared, or are you going take that small boy playing in the dirt a toy car? Would you consider giving that homeless man a breakfast sandwich?, or buying a car battery for that station wagon on the corner with the 5 kids inside?  Will you be Jesus, today? 

I encourage you to write down or tell someone what breaks your heart.  Then, decide today your SO WHAT and take that first step of faith. 

Let me leave you with the words of Mother Theresa:

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them."

"Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier."

"Peace begins with a smile."