Let Your Heart Be Broken

A friend of mine just returned from a mission trip to Guatemala. This morning I finished reading her reflections of the trip on her blog. (Erin's blog) Erin’s last entry about her trip describes her feelings on bonding with several of the children in Hermano Pedro orphanage. I’ll admit, it got to me. You should really read it!

(Sidebar: the older I get the more emotional I get. I usually can’t even get through a church service without tearing up for some reason….I know, I’m pitiful, but I digress.)

I began to take stock of my own heart. Sometimes I am oblivious, and sometimes just very much Scarlet O’Hara…you know, “I can’t think about this now…I’ll think about it tomorrow” when it comes to noticing people to help and to love. I get so caught up in the details of my everyday life, it seems there’s never enough time to get it all done. Before I know it, that tomorrow I’ve planned for has passed me by unnoticed and, by then I’m well into worrying about something else.

As I drove to work I contemplated Erin’s trip to Guatemala. In a very short amount of time, these children left a permanent imprint on her heart. Erin won’t be the same as before, nor can she forget the children at Hermano Pedro.

Would they touch me the same way?
Would I even open my heart for that opportunity?

OH NO! Here I go again.

You would think by now I would know NEVER-SAY-NEVER. My wonderful church (Immanuel Baptist Church) has a partnership with a church in Klintsy, Russia. For 13 summers we have had members participate in an annual mission team to Klintsy. Eight years ago, I flat out told some friends “I will never have the desire to go to Russia.” Seven years ago I said, “There’s no way I would spend my precious vacation time in a stranger’s home with no air conditioning, no electricity, no indoor plumbing!”

Six years ago, God called me to Russia and it changed my life.

In this past summer, as I first heard Erin bubbling with enthusiasm for her upcoming trip, once again, I thought to myself “Oh, I REALLY wouldn’t want to go to Guatemala.”

But just between us, after reading of Erin’s experience, I practically feel the seed planted. I can envision at some point God breaking my heart again to the suffering I cannot yet contemplate; when He turns my eyes off myself, to focus on others who are hurting but don’t have the luxury of waiting for their needs to be met.

There is a wonderful hymn by Bryan Jeffery Leech that's been stuck in my head all day that says it better than I can:

Let Your Heart Be Broken

Let your heart be broken for a world in need
Feed the mouths that hunger, soothe the wounds that bleed
Give the cup of water and the loaf of bread
Be the hands of Jesus, serving in his stead.

Here on earth, applying principles of love
Visible expression God still rules above
Living illustration of the Living Word
To the minds of all who've never seen and heard.

Blest to be a blessing, priveleged to care
Challenged by the need apparent everywhere
Where mankind is wanting, fill the vacant place
Be the means thru which the Lord reveals his grace.

Add to your believing deeds that prove it true
Knowing Christ as Savior, make Him Master too:
Follow in His footsteps, go where He has trod,
In the world's great trouble risk yourself for God.

Let your heart be tender and your vision clear
See mankind as God sees, serve Him far and near
Let you heart be broken by a brother's pain
Share your rich resources - give and give again.

I pray that God won't settle with allowing you to be oblivious to the suffering of others. I pray that He will break your heart in tender love too.

Blessings,
J

Girlfriend Community

My Sunday School lesson this week is on Living in Community. I have posted already about my girlfriends in The Sparkly Countenance of a Girlfriend. And more recently, I have written about community in Living Life Down A Little Gravel Road. However, I dedicate today’s post to my Sunday School Class and the bonds in our little community.

Every Sunday morning I am fortunate enough to gather with a wonderful group of women. We call ourselves the “Girlfriend” Class. The age of our members span the gamut from women in their 30’s to 50’s. Our class includes women in different stages of their lives; childless, small children, teenagers and adult children, members are single, married, divorced and widowed.

No matter the life circumstances, God brought us together, fellow sojourners to share the journey. We may be a varied group of women but we seek a common purpose, to become more like Christ.

The chairs in our room are arranged in a circle so we can see each other; and an added benefit, no one can hide in the back of the class. As I sit at my computer tonight and close my eyes, I imagine our class. It makes me smile as I picture each beautiful face. I love my Girlfriend Class; the women and the amazing community we have formed over the last several years.

The “Girlfriends” in our class are invested in each other; we share our lives, not just an hour on Sunday morning. We hold each other up in prayer and encourage one another. Our members rejoice together with good news, and weep together in times of sorrow. We are quick to give a hug, shoulder to lean on or a meal when it is needed.

Narrow is the road that leads to life. No one said it would be easy and sometimes the road is downright difficult to traverse. When I feel like giving up, I need a push from behind to keep me going. On the other hand, when I stray from the path and cannot find my way I require a helping hand from someone ahead of me. My Girlfriends are right along with me, we push and pull together, rooting each other on “toward the goal for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14 NIV)

If you are a member of the Girlfriend Class I want you to know how I cherish you and thank God we share our journey together. If you are not a member, our class is always open to newcomers, we welcome anyone who is searching for community, Christian growth and to learn about, and receive God’s love.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

It's A Good Thing

Many, many moons ago, in a land far, far away I was a lonely freshman in college, 250 miles from my family. One day in my first semester I finished classes and rode the city bus to the mall. It’s hard to believe, but back in those days there were not any no-smoking bans. As I was sauntering around the mall I caught a whiff of pipe tobacco. It was the very same-smelling pipe tobacco that my dad smoked while I was growing up. It’s odd because my dad had quit smoking years before, but my brain held on to the association of him and the smell of that particular tobacco. I trailed behind the smoking man for a while just to have a sensory glimpse of something familiar, something from home.

Today, as I was leaving my office for an appointment I passed an elderly gentleman walking in the opposite direction who was smoking a pipe. It has been 20 years since my dad’s death, and many more years since he quit smoking his pipe. However, once a whisper of the aroma filled my nose I instinctively breathed deeply of that familiar scent and the memories flooded back.

My dad was a country boy who listened to classical music. He knew almost everything. Seriously. When the Trivial Pursuit boardgame came out he could win with one trip around the board; he got every question right, all the time. My love of obscure trivia is a gift from him. If my daughter Alex had known him, my own weirdness would wane in comparison. Although we thought it was normal to find him reading a tome from our set of Encyclopedia Britannica, or the dictionary. A little light reading, just for fun. Keep in mind this was way before the time of home computers and the internet.

He was irreverent, not the stuffy Cardiologist one might expect. I remember one time taking dinner to him at the hospital. He had on his usual, white coat and stethoscope draped around his neck. However, he also had a t-shirt with a big Superman emblem that showed underneath his white button down shirt and tie. And his socks never matched! My dad was color blind, but if you pointed out that one sock was blue and one was black, he would exclaim “I have another pair just like it at home!”
We lived in a nice quiet neighborhood, but my dad used to shoot his shotgun at midnight to welcome in the New Year, startling the neighbors. He put his stereo speakers in the open windows and piped John Philip Sousa marches while we raked leaves. And in the summer he could beat even my brothers with a bigger splash doing a cannonball into the pool.

My sister Susan loves to tell of a time he went to pick her up from high school. As she stood waiting for him among a throng of her classmates, dad drove up. He had our mother’s shoes tied together and slung over the rear view mirror. Another sister was on a date only to find a salmon patty he had hidden in her purse. Poor Bonny was the brunt of numerous practical jokes. He would have us little sisters short-sheet her bed, or what we called make a “pie” bed. Once he wrapped her toilet seat in plastic wrap. I don’t know where he came up with them, but he went through a stage of putting different critters on her bed.

I remember many of the silly things he used to do. More importantly I remember how he loved his family! His love for us was surpassed only by his love for God. He lived an exemplary Christian life which was modeled by Titus 2:7-8

In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

I am thankful for my dad’s legacy of Christian love and kindness. To this day I still hear from his former patients how his gentle spirit ministered to them. The very manner in which he lived his life was a witness of God’s goodness. I’m also thankful that even a hint of pipe smoke brought forth a comforting sense of my dad for me this afternoon.

I know the sense of smell conveys powerful connections. As I stop and smell the roses - or pipe tobacco, in life, I should choose to reflect on the memories evoked that teach me to also become an example to others by doing what is good.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.

Living Life Down a Little Gravel Road

In my last post I mentioned that my mom, sisters, their families and mine, live down the same little gravel road. Yesterday my friend Jennifer responded to that post and sent an email to a small group of friends that said,
“I feel that way about you all - you know - friends are the family you choose for yourself”

My response, “But unfortunately, WE don't get to live all together on a private gravel road.... and that makes me sad.”

Jennifer: “Maybe someday we will all live together down a little gravel road in Florida near the beach and Cardinals' spring training camp!”

We all started thinking about living down a little gravel road together and decided that in the evenings we would sit on the front porch, drink ice tea and discuss the meaning of life, or maybe laugh and be silly and generally WOW ourselves with our fabulosity (see blog The Sparkly Countenance of a Girlfriend.) At any rate, what ever we talk about would be in person not via the internet like now.

If you read my last post you know that even though my family and I live close, we don’t often get to visit on each others’ front porches. We all stay busy and have to leave our little compound for work, church, shopping, errands, school and other activities. We can’t live our entire lives down the gravel road…..

Or can we?

Speaking metaphorically “living life down the gravel road” can signify living in community - or common unity. In that case I CAN live my entire life down the gravel road.

We are not meant to live in isolation.

Genesis 2:18 And the Lord Said “It is not good for the man to be alone.”

And thus, community was born of Adam’s rib.

All the way back to the Garden of Eden encouragement was an essential component to living in community, although I’m not too sure God was pleased that Eve encouraged Adam to eat of the tree of knowledge. And later, Moses provided continual encouragement to the Israelites for forty years as they wandered in the wilderness.

In Hebrews we are also instructed to “encourage one another.” It is a give-and-take commodity. As Bill Withers sang:

Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on.

Sometimes I am the lean-er; needing the support and encouragement of others in my communities. At other times I am the lean-ee, holding up others and cheering them on.

I am thankful to have communities that encourage and hold me up. I can remember a time when I was alone and lonely and that makes the fellowship I enjoy now all that much sweeter.

Hebrews 10:23-25 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

The Tie That Binds

Boy am I tired! I’ve been putting in some long hours for work this past week, including Saturday and Labor Day Monday. However, Sunday, the Sabbath, I did rest. Well, maybe not rest exactly, but I didn’t work.

After church last Sunday, Phil and I joined my sister Susan, her husband Craig, and my sister Bonny - sans her husband Richard, who WAS working, in a short jaunt to a winery in Southern Illinois. Although Phil and I live on the same little private gravel road as Susan and Craig, and Bonny and Richard, (not to mention my mom and sister Kathy) there is never enough time to squeeze in any leisurely visitin’, so this was a rare treat.


We drove for about an hour, the boys in the front keeping up with the golf scores or the upcoming football game between UK and U of L. Or maybe they were listening in to us girls in the back while we were busy catching up with each others’ lives and kids - and of course, cute shoes.

It didn’t take long before we were turning off the highway and looking for Lick Creek Road. You know you’re in the midst of God’s country when you’re on a road named Lick Creek. We drove up a narrow, twisting road, keeping an eye out for the entrance into Blue Sky Winery.

After a short while we began to see vineyards dotting the countryside…And there it was, the Tuscan-style gate into the winding drive that led to the winery. As we drove in we could see the terracotta tiled roof atop the stone-looking façade of the building. The parking lot was full and we were directed to the supplemental parking next to long rows of net-covered grape vines.

As soon as we got out of the car we could hear guitar music, talking and laughing coming from the courtyard area. We made our way to the entrance and paid our $2 deposit for a wine glass, and $1 for five tokens allowing us the opportunity to taste up to five different wines. Folks were crowding around the bar where the bartenders were furiously pouring each allotted taste.

The indoor tables were taken so we made our way to the patio. It was a picturesque setting and a beautiful, if hot, day. Above our heads it was almost perfectly clear with only a few puffs of small clouds floating in the azure sky. The green grounds sloped down toward a pond. There was a lovely little portico overlooking the water, and a bit further was a rock feature with a peaceful waterfall.



The winery was a picturesque place to spend the afternoon. But for us, or at least for me, it wasn’t about the surroundings, or the wine, it was about hanging out together. Being with my family is so comfortable. There is constant current that keeps us connected, in sync with each other so conversation is always easy and the only effort required is in trying to outdo each other with inside jokes.

Here is my nerdiness raring it’s head; I love my family and I truly enjoy spending time with them. There is no need for us to have false pretenses. We know each other too well to be fooled by masks we often try to hide behind. But more importantly, masks are not needed. With my family I am free to be myself and still be confident of their unwavering love, as I too love each of them unconditionally.

I was sorry to see the afternoon end so quickly. It’s hard to leave a party when you’re still having fun. It made me think of a hymn that we sing at our church from time to time:

Blessed be the tie that binds,
Our hearts in Christian love.
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.

When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.

Wouldn’t it be lovely for everyone to love, and be loved in this same manner?

And then God sent me a little “thwack” across my mind, as He does from time to time to get my attention. I know this kind of love sounds impossible and in our small human minds it is. Yet that’s exactly what God calls us to do. God is the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love, and knowing that, the fellowship we all share together should be like to that above.

John 15:9-12 (NIV) As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.