Broken Hearted

If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your back, a roof overhead, and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the people in this world.

If you have ANY money in the bank, some in your wallet, and some spare change laying around, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. 92% have less to live on than you.

If you have never experienced war, imprisonment, torture, or starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

I write these stats not to invoke guilt. For whatever reason, God has allowed us to live in a wealth of resources, freedom, and comfort. We shouldn't feel guilty that God has given us so much. We should be ever so thankful. However, legitimate guilt is the guilt of ignoring the men, women, and children who do not have what we have - and spending the majority of our time, gifts, and possessions only on ourselves and our families.

If I am being completely honest, I am so guilty of this that it makes me sick. And when all is said and done, I will have no defense in the end. "Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required." (Luke 12:48) So I pray that God will break my heart into a million pieces for those crying around the world and those searching for hope right next door. And maybe, just maybe, the breaking of my heart will finally invoke action. Not just here and there action, but an everyday committment to entering into the poverty of others with the riches of grace.

Oswald Chambers said, "If through a broken heart, God can bring His purposes to pass in the world, then thank Him for breaking your heart."

Break, break, away, Jesus. I just can't keep making excuses.