What Breaks Your Heart?
One of the downsides of social media is the constant barrage of bad news and negative things that we read regarding people and their lives. Years ago, it used to be that you only had limited access to the terrible things that happened around the world or in your country…there just wasn’t as much access to read/hear about the terrible atrocities that happen. I fear that this constant barrage of bad news can lead to a desensitization to terrible things…a sort of callousness that can grow on our feelings. After all, it is almost every day where we can read of a parent taking the life of a child or a senseless killing or abuse. I am not against the spreading of this news…that genie is not going to go back into the bottle…but I think we must be aware of the possibility that very few things break our hearts anymore because we have seen and read so much.
In the book of Lamentations in the Old Testament, the prophet Jeremiah is pouring out his broken heart about his people. God has judged His people and Jeremiah has seen the carnage of the judgment of God. Jeremiah’s heart is broken. In one example we read these words from Lamentations 2:11: “My eyes fail with tears, my heart is troubled. My bile is poured on the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. Because the children and the infants faint in the streets of the city.” Jeremiah sheds tears for the downfall of his people and the judgment of God upon them. Do we shed tears in the same way?
If you know me, you know that I am not shy about shedding tears; especially on Sunday morning. I am often moved to tears as we sing of the majesty and glory of God and often as I think about the difficulty and the despair that is caused by sin in the lives of people that I love and care about. Some people at Buffalo Valley may shed tears because of the terribly boring sermon they’ve just heard 🙂 but I shed them because of my brokenness for the lives of people. I consider this a blessing to be able to shed tears in that way. I hope that you can still say that sin and sorrow break your heart..whether you shed tears or not, I think it is important that we not become callous to the despair that is in our world. We know the answer and His name is Jesus. Let’s be broken over sin and let’s proclaim the cure, Jesus Christ.