"Break My Heart for What Breaks Yours"

Over the past year or so, I have come to realize how broken our world is. People are broken, families are broken, and countries are broken. Things are just clearly at a very broken state, and we all are affected by it in one way or another.

On my drive home from my camp, Suncrest Camp, last summer, I began to think of a line from the song Hosanna by Hillsong. I began to think of how broken our world is. I began to feel how heavy my heart had become and truly broken it is for those who are suffering around me. There are things that are extremely wrong with this world that show that this is not how it is supposed to be. We know that this is not the way it's supposed to be because we have a longing for something better, something unbroken.

Empathy is a word that I have learned the meaning to in a great way. Empathy is feeling what others feel. A friend of mine once told me, "You can walk with someone and feel what they feel." This has stuck with me so much and when I meet someone, or talk to a friend who is struggling, I try to really put myself in their position. Because of this, I am able to get a glimpse of how they are feeling.

These are some things that I have come up with that my heart has broken for:

My heart is broken for a family who just lost their son and brother.
My heart is broken to see those that I love leave and move away.
My heart is broken when my friend tells me that her parents split up.
It's broken when I hear about an old friend who is heading down a wrong path, someone I once knew so well, and now I don't know at all.
My heart is broken from memories of let downs.
It's broken when I talk to girls at camp who feel rejected by their parents, out of touch with God, and unloved.
It's broken when I talked to a friend who seems like they have it all together, to find out they don't, simply because I want to be able to help them more.

After a few weeks into the fall semester, I added more to this list as I began to meet more people and discover their stories.

My heart breaks for the girl whose father is sick.
It breaks when my heart for God is not where it should be, and I can hear His heart breaking in turn.
My heart breaks to he who has lost a life he once knew because it left him without a sound.
My heart breaks when it's reminded of how we're not promised tomorrow.
It breaks to see a girl with disabilities to simply want friends, yet always continues to love Christ,
To see my friend be kind to her even when no one is watching him.
My heart is broken for those who are judged to quickly when they just want a chance.
My heart is broken when I can't just jump the fence to pick up trash.

I have been praying that the Lord would "break my heart for what breaks yours." I know that He has. God has broken my heart so that I can try to do something about the brokenness of this world, even if it is just praying for these people and just being there to listen to them.