Break my heart for what breaks yours

We were driving along the Galveston Seawall this morning before the start of the conference. As I was looking out at the beach and the water, I noticed a man, pretty obviously homeless. His shoulders slumped, his ribs showing through his threadbare, dirty shirt. The bag beside him dirty and worn. His hair stringy and frayed. 

And I thought, what demons has he fought in his life that brought him to this point. The thought that immediately followed was this was once someone’s precious baby boy and I wondered if his mother was still living and wondering daily whether her son was alive. 

And then I realized that this history I placed on him might not be true at all. That, like many of the children I work with daily, his history might be filled with stories of addiction and abuse and neglect. That he might not have felt that unconditional love of a parent at all. Not ever. 

And then it struck me that God loved him that way even if nobody else ever had. And I wondered if he knew that. And my heart broke that he may have never known that. Or if he once knew, he may have either forgotten or stopped believing it. 

There’s a song chorus that goes as follows: 

Heal my heart and make it clean. Open up my eyes to the things unseen. Show me how to love like you have loved me. Break my heart for what breaks yours. Everything I am for your kingdom’s cause. As I walk from earth into eternity. 

Asking God to break your heart for what breaks his is risky business. Because there are lots of things in this world that I believe do so. But I think that’s what we are called to do. Not because God wants us to be miserable. But because he wants us to be his hands and feet in this world. And the way we can be most effective in doing that is to see where those hands and feet are most needed. With the broken and the hurting. With the less than and the looked over. With those in the margins and those in the wilderness. With the least of these. 

Gracious God, let me always have my heart broken by what breaks yours. And give me the heart and desire to be your hands and feet in this hurting world.