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