Break our Hearts for What Breaks Yours

I was awakened at 4am by a cat who was ready for me to take her downstairs.  The very first words that were running through my mind were from Casting Crowns new song "Jesus, Friend of Sinners."  Over and over again, I heard these words:

You love every lost cause
You reach for the outcast...


Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors


Jesus, friend of sinners, 
Break our hearts for what breaks Yours

My cat was ready to tackle the new day, but I wasn't.  I crawled back into bed and pulled the covers up over my head.  The minute I awakened, I remembered what day it was.  This is Friday, May 4th.  At midnight tonight the doors of opportunity will close for several Latvian orphans who are on a waiting list for host parents for the summer.  They have no voice of their own to scream out, "I need your help.  I need a family!"  You can see them on the New Horizons page that I spoke about in my last post.  There, you will see picture after picture.

But don't think for a moment that they are merely pictures.  These are real live breathing children.  And we can either turn a deaf ear or stop for the one.  We can be the well respected priest or Levite that walks past the wounded person, or we can choose to be the Samaritan who sees the need and stops.

Why do we insist on having to be "called"?  The need IS the call.

You may be the one who opens your home to one or more of these children for 5 weeks in the summer.  You may be the one who goes the distance to open your home as a forever family.  You may be the one who cannot adopt but can give sacrificially to allow someone else to adopt.  You may be the one who enters into the labor of fasting and praying on behalf of these children, giving up your personal comfort.  WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT STOP SHORT OF SACRIFICE!  We absolutely have to stop trying to keep ourselves comfortable, uninvolved, emotionally removed from the lives and pain of others.  We must follow in the steps of Jesus.

"For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example,  so that you might follow in His steps." 1 Peter 2:21

You love every lost cause

You reach for the outcast...

Let our hearts be led by mercy

Help us reach with open hearts and open doors

Jesus, friend of sinners, 

Break our hearts for what breaks Yours

And when He answers that prayer...when He does indeed break your heart for what breaks His...do not shrink back from the pain and the putrid smell of it all.  STEP INTO THE NEED HE PLACES BEFORE YOUR EYES.  Be Jesus to the least of us.  Stop for the one.

After all, WE were that outcast...WE were that leper...WE were that lost cause...until He stepped into our lives.  If we are serious about following Him, we will do the same for others.