Has your heart been broken?

Have you ever had an experience where your heart has been broken? I do not mean a broken heart from a relationship gone bad, though that hurts also. I mean a broken heart over the things God’s heart breaks for?

When I was thirteen I boarded a plane headed for Rio De Janeiro Brazil where my life was changed forever. Though this trip was over eleven years ago I find that I am still processing what that experience did to my heart. I distinctly remember the moments I sat on the orphanage floor with a child who was dying of AIDS. I remember the smell of the dump where people lived in literally cardboard houses and searched the dump all day for anything they could sell to buy food. I remember walking down the street seeing the child with the overextended stomach, assuming the child was overweight, but fining out later that once starvation takes over your body creates gas and literally blows up your body. I remember weeping over what I saw; to this day I cannot think about these things without being overcome with emotion.

When I came home, nothing was the same. My life was changed forever. Since this time I have known that I have a passion and a longing to do something about these children. I remember holding the children knowing that someday I want to adopt a child and give them a different life.

This past fall I was sitting next to my husband in a leadership training where the speaker showed pictures of a missions trip he had just gotten back from. He talked about the people and what he saw and experienced. As soon as he started talking tears ran down my face as I was once again reminded of my own broken heart for things like this. On the way home, I sobbed over my broken heart for these things. But also felt helpless. I want to do something, but I do not feel called to be a missionary in Africa, so what is this calling?

A month later a co-worker came to me and asked me if I was planning on running a marathon this year. I said yes, this was the year to be crazy… She then told me about what World Vision is doing. (see this post for more info) THIS WAS IT! I was so excited I didn’t know what to do with myself.

I have come to realize that God has been preparing me for this, to do something in my own community alongside my friends and family to make a difference for the child who lives in the dump, the baby with AIDS in the orphanage, the child dying of starvation on the street. I run for them. I run so that others can be exposed to these things and have their heart broken too.

These memories may never go away, in fact I never want them to. I want to have a heart that beats for what Christ’s heart beats for, that loves what Christ loves, and that cares for those who do not have a voice and be their voice. I may not have the money to change the world, the ability to change countries, but I do have two legs… and so I RUN.

Micah 6:8
But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do,
what God is looking for in men and women.
It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don't take yourself too seriously—
take God seriously.