Broken

Matthew 10:27 - "What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs." Obadiah 1:3 -"The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, 'Who can bring me down to the ground?" Finally recovering from the fireworks stand. It was our seventh year, and although the weather was wonderful, I was still just as tired. Pretty well exhausted actually. But as the fog began to lift, I thought about everything that had happened in the two weeks we lived on the Walgreens parking lot in Republic. For one thing, we had one of the worst storms we've ever had. At 1:00 in the morning, we heard a loud knock on the door. Thankfully, it was the police warning us of an impending storm. Their warning gave us enough time to make some preparations. When the storm hit, 5 of us were inside the tent. The men were holding on to some of the tent poles for dear life. The 70+mph winds were very frightening. Not only did we think we could lose all of our fireworks, but we were also concerned about our own safety. We were spared, and only lost a few fireworks. Thank you Lord! Other stands were not so fortunate. We thank God for protection. Working with the public, you met a lot of interesting people. As I thought back,there were a few events that really stuck with me. I am always surprised at the brokenness and unhappiness I see in others. I'd like to share some of my stories with you. I do have a purpose in mind here.....trust me. One man came in with 3 children. They shopped for quite a while, then they brought their items up to check out. The father had spent a significant amount of money. As I always try to do, I reminded the children to thank their dad for the fireworks, then told him to enjoy. That's when he told me, with a sad tone, that he would not be seeing the kids shoot the fireworks off. He explained that he and his wife were divorced, and the children would be shooting them at their mothers. He said, " I won't see them shoot them off, but I wanted them to have a nice assortment of fireworks to shoot." Broken marriages. Another man brought in a teenage boy who I assumed was his foster child. He did the talking, the boy just stared out into space. I was taken aback by the blank stare the boy had. Like there was no life behind those eyes. The man had a few bottle rockets in his hand that he said the boy had stolen from us. They were also heading to two other establishments where he had apparently stolen things the day before. I was very effected by the hopelessness I saw in this young man. Broken lives. There were numerous families who entered our tent I really did not want to serve. Those were the ones who I suspected needed to be spending this money on something else. Like nutritious food, clothing, dentist bills. I knew most of them just wanted to provide their children with the fun of the holiday, as other children were doing. Although I could not be their financial advisor, I didn't even want to sell to them. Broken dreams. We only had one obviously intoxicated customer this year. A young man barely in his twenties if that. Completely wasted. He appeared to be having fun.....but having been there myself I knew he wasn't. I knew he wouldn't in the years to come if this was a frequent occurrence as I suspected it was. Broken future. There are lots of other "brokens" that I didn't see in the stand. Broken relationships. Broken jobs. Broken finances. Broken _______________ (fill in the blank). These examples and many more point to a world that is really hurting. I wonder if we in the "church community" really understand? There is a hopelessness out there, an ocean of people who feign happiness to cover a deep despair. Who drink to cover that despair. Who steal to get some sort of attention, which is better than none at all. Who watch other people enjoy time while they sit and think of their children at another home without them. Real, palpable pain. I know we sometimes think, "Well, if they wouldn't do this, this, and this, they would do better." Yes, probably so. But I can tell you from experience......the only way to break out of these cycles of sin and despair is through Jesus Christ. He is the only way to peace and joy. He is the antidote to alchoholism, the answer to lonliness. And I'm not talking about a religion either. It's a relationship that works. It's the only thing that works. Not that we still won't have some "brokens". We absolutely will. But only through relationship with Christ can we survive, and survive well. We as a society of believers need to remember that. We have the answer. We have the hope, the cure, the only prescription. And I personally believe there is only one thing worse than the sin and despair we see in the world. And that worse thing is a believer in Christ who doesn't try to share that hope with a world in horrible pain. How can we know the answer and keep it to ourselves? How can we see all the ugliness in the world and not share the beauty to be found in Him? How can we stand by, shaking our heads and pointing fingers, while sitting on the answer to it all? Who do we think we are? I went through one experience many years ago that begged to teach me an important lesson. I'm not sure I got it then, but I get it more now. I was involved in a service project for the poor. We were providing clothes, food, and toys for people who could not provide these for their own families during the holiday season. It was a really cold night in December, yet over a hundred people were lined up outside waiting for us to open the doors. As I was standing there waiting for the crowd to appear, a pillar in the church community approached one of the ministers, obviously angry. He had seen one of the people waiting in line smoking a cigarette. He wanted that person removed from the line and refused entry into the church. His contention was if he could afford to buy cigarettes, he could afford to provide Christmas for his family. I was surprised at the level of anger this person displayed. But are we called to be judges? Is it our job to criticize, blame, and put down people who are already at the bottom? I think not. We have only one job. That job is to serve and share, and let God clean up the mess. By serving, we share a glimpse of that answer to the problems in life. We show a small part of the love Christ has for everyone....the thief, the drunk, the poor. And to do this well we have to be broken too. I want a heart that will serve and love. There's only one way to have a heart like that. God, break my heart for what breaks Yours. Because a broken heart is the only kind of "broken" that can make a difference in this broken world. Matthew 25:40 "The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."