break my heart for what breaks yours

I’m pretty sure that the first time I heard that line was in the Brooke Fraser/Hillsongs song Hosanna.  It rolls out in the chorus, and it hit me like a truck.

Pastor Dan referred to the source of the quote this past weekend. It comes from Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision and Samaritan’s Purse. While Pierce wrestled with some tragic flaws, he loved Jesus and fought for the poor and hungry of the world with a burning passion. Pierce wrote these words in the flyleaf of his Bible: “Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God.”

We started a new sermon series over the weekend, in conjunction with several other congregations in the city-church. We’re working through the book of Nehemiah, looking at the Word asking the question “How do you heal a city?” As part of the application Dan asked us to take a look at what breaks our hearts.

As Kim and I talked about this yesterday, a couple of things were pretty clear to us. As a family, our heart breaks for the orphan. Our home makes that pretty obvious–we’re out of living space that we can turn into bedrooms, and I don’t know that our family schedule could handle another addition at this point!

I don’t know that I have the right words to clearly articulate what God is stirring up in my heart, but it centers around the upcoming generation of young men and what appears to be the lack of a plan to grow into manhood as God would define it. I’m 44 years old and have had some great mentors, a wonderful Biblical education from a fabulous Christian college, and the blessing of a solid church family. And it’s only in the past few years that I think I’m really starting to connect some of the dots.

This idea has been rolling around in my head and heart for most of the past 15-20 years, and yet I still don’t know if I’ve gotten to the meat of it. I do know, however, that God continues to bring young men into my life who are looking for help, direction, and a nudge/kick in the pants. I believe that there are a lot of young men who want to be serious Jesus-followers. They’ve had some false starts, some mis-steps, some train wrecks…but I know that some of them are on the verge of a breakthrough.

That’s where I want to come alongside. I don’t pretend that I have the magic beans or all the answers, but I think that there’s something I can offer, even if it’s only to put several of them in the woods together and let them share their stories and encourage each other.

We’ll see what happens…