Mending Broken Hearts

​What keeps you up at night?  What’s the first thing you think about in the morning? What do you dream about as you walk through the day?  Thinking Red Together will provoke us to reflect on questions such as these and help us discover what we’re most passionate about.
 
When my friends and I plot capers to release love into the neighborhood, we ask ourselves three questions: When Jesus looks at our city, what breaks his heart? And then we ask the same question of ourselves: When we look at our neighborhood, what breaks our heart? An honest discussion about these two questions will compel us to ask a third: What can we do to mend the broken heart?
 
One of my friends was brutally honest with her self and confessed to our small group, “What breaks my heart is the fact that nothing breaks my heart!  I’m concerned about a lot of things.  I’m concerned about systemic sin in our city and the harm it brings on so many of my neighbors.  I’m concerned about racial injustice, and poverty, and the health and education disparity across our city; but none of these issues keeps me up at night . . . and that breaks my heart!” 
 
When I reflect on the words and ways of Jesus, it’s easy to see how his passion for people and his passion for God motivated him to put his life on the line for the things he cared about. It mattered to Jesus if those in power treated disenfranchised people unfairly. It mattered to him if people were neglected and left out of the party. He left his home and a secure job in order to seek out those who were broken hearted and run over by the religious and political systems of his day. He cared about the poor and those in dire need of health care. He spent a great deal of time healing the sick. He even broke to law to do so. He healed people on the Sabbath and put the care of hurting people above the comfort and norms of those in power.
 
Jesus cared so much for people who suffered from social injustice that he spoke directly to those in power and challenged their hypocrisy. He looked religious and political leaders in the eye and said: You give a tenth of your spices — mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law — justice, mercy and faithfulness. And then Jesus called them a bunch of names; like, hypocrites, snakes, a brood of vipers, white–washed tombs, and blind guides. Wow, I think his passion for the people who were pushed to the margins of life fueled his indignation against those who did the pushing. There is no doubt; Jesus was passionate about people! He was also passionate about justice, mercy and faithfulness.

​This week I’m asking us to slow down and take a fresh look at our neighborhoods. What’s going on—or not going on—that breaks your heart?  What breaks God’s heart? Is there something you and a couple friends can do to help mend the broken heart?