What Breaks Your Heart? A Call to Action

"What breaks your heart? It's okay not to know, but it's the question we should all ask from time and time. What breaks your heart? And, and like me, just to be clear, like me, there are a lot of things that bother you. There are a lot of things that irritate you. There are things that offend you culturally. There are things that bother you nationally. There may be some things that irritate you locally, but is there, is there one thing that, that surpasses all those other things?" [00:17:30]

"Is there one thing, one category, one issue that above all the things that just kind of bother you and irritate you and make you mad and make you wanna throw something at the television? Is there one thing in particular that is above all those other things? Is there one thing that just kind stays with you? You kind of wish you'd never read about it. You kind of wish you'd never heard about it. You wish you wish you'd never seen it, you wish you'd not visited it, because now you can't get it out of your head and it just sits there." [00:18:04]

"And it's frustrating because you don't think there's anything you can do about it, but you live with a bit of that tension. And one of the things that bothers you is it doesn't seem to bother anybody else. They're just irritated. And you're like, no, it, it's, it's bigger than that. Is there anything that transcends merely irritating and concerning that elicits more emotion than all of those other things? More than sad. Is there anything that when you give it your undivided attention, it kind of makes you mad." [00:18:44]

"Something that you find yourself thinking or saying this just shouldn't be. This is how Sandra and I say it all the time. We'll see something or hear about something. It's like we say that just shouldn't be in the world. Now I mentioned Janine Maxwell a few minutes ago, showed you the picture of the kids in Sini. She wrote a book years ago when she first got there. She's written several books and I love the title of her book. The Problem with the title of her book, it is so emotional to me because I've been there and I've seen this extraordinary work they do." [00:19:24]

"The title of her first book is this. It's not okay with me, it's not okay with me. Is there anything in the world that's not okay with you And not okay with me? Not okay. Maybe even with us. I, I'll, I'll tell you my personal, my my initial foray into this, this tension that this question raises. I was in my twenties and I, I've, I I never felt called to ministry. I volunteered. I mean, I had friends that felt called, they went forward and told my dad and he put, put his arm around him and said, this is so and so." [00:20:01]

"He feels called to ministry. She feels called to ministry. It's mostly he's back then. But you know, they're, you know, women got called. We just couldn't call him pastor. But anyway, we're, that was a long time ago. So anyway, so it was usually a, he, I feel called to preach. And I, I was driving around with my dad because I wanted to be in ministry. I'll tell you why in a minute. But I never felt called. I was kind of waiting for this lightning bolts or I woke up in the middle of the night, or the angel or I, I, I would sometimes pray, God, if you're gonna call me, don't do it audibly 'cause I'll wet my pants." [00:20:35]

"Okay? So just don't, don't over call me. Just, you know, make it clear, you know. So I'm driving around with my dad one day and, and I, I said, dad, do you have to be called into ministry or can you just volunteer? That's what I asked him. We're in our green Grand Safari station wagon. I remember right where we were in Cobb County, you know, I said, can you just volunteer for ministry? 'cause I'd like, he said, yeah. I said, well, I'd like to volunteer. That's how I got into this. And I tell you what, what drove me." [00:21:15]

"I was working just as a volunteer with some high school students. And I began working with college students and then high school students again. And the thing that broke my heart was watching students watching, you know, back then we call 'em young people, watching young people watching students, teenagers, and, you know, college students, watching them make decisions that I knew would potentially undermine their future. It just broke my heart. I'm like, no, no, no. Why are you doing that? Why are you going there?" [00:21:49]

"Why are you participating? You don't understand. You think it's an event, it's a pathway. This leads somewhere. I mean, come on. Life is hard enough. Don't make your life harder by creating your own regret. I mean, some regrets are unavoidable. They deal with, you know, they have other people that do things to us or create environments we can't escape. But come on, don't make your life harder than it's already gonna be. And that burden stayed with me. And that's what drove my communication." [00:22:23]

"Then It's what drives my communication. Now, it's why try to be practical. So, you know, sidebar, here's the, here's the mini sermon for today. Don't make your life more complicated than it already is with bad decisions. That's it. That's all I wanna say to you week after week after week, you know, follow Jesus. This is why we say following Jesus, make your life better, makes you better at life. So that, that's what really broke my heart in those days. That's why I stayed for years and years." [00:22:57]

"I thought I would work with high school students my whole life. I really did. Because I'm like, if you, you know, if you can just get these years, these college years, right? It just, it just puts you on a trajectory that's gonna make your life better. Now, okay, so that's enough about me. So back to you. What, what breaks, what breaks your heart? Years ago? We're in the kitchen, and Sandra and I are talking about this, and she had a different way of asking this question. So I'll ask, I'll give you her version or, and maybe it's more clarifying for you." [00:23:31]