Being the Broken

When I was sorting through some books deciding which to get rid of (not very many!) I came across this book that V and I purchased earlier in the summer. The book is called Making Poverty Personal and is looking at the way that the Bible views those who are in poverty. I have only read the forward by Shane Claiborne and the introduction by the author Ash Barker and already my heart is broken.

Almost five years ago my heart began to break as I worked with people who had been devastated by hurricane Katrina. For the first time I saw what poverty looked like and realized that it wasn't always by choice that someone ended up in the situation that they were in. I learned of how fast one's circumstance can change and how little can be done to make things "better." From this time on I could feel God beginning a work in my heart. Little did I know that in a few years I would be teaching special education classes that had children from homes that were not in the best financial states. I felt the pain and joy of the children I worked with, gave many hugs and high fives, and in the end found that these children had changed my life.

Since then we moved to this new place and I began to wonder what opportunities God would plant in my life. I learned of my love for children and my heart for children who needed the love, support, and stability of a home and family. V and I began to talk of what it would look like to have foster children and a dream planted itself in my heart. Now as we talk of the changes that are about to take place in our lives, pack away our posessions, and rid ourselves of things we don't need I found myself distant from the dreams of offering healing to broken people. Then I randomly picked up this book.

Within three paragraphs I could feel my heart breaking again, an awareness of God speaking to me through the words penned by Shane. He writes in the forward "I have grown to love the kind of Christianity that is about loving people out of the hells of this world, not just trying to get them into heaven." Echoing words of my soul. Shane continues to write saying that "God is in the business of rescuing people from the hells they experience on earth, and God is asking us to love people out of those hells. God is asking us to taste the salt in the tears of the broken, to hunger for justice with the starving masses of our world, to groan with all creation in the birth of the kingdom of God. God is asking us to make poverty personal." Sometimes, in the midst of chaos, church politics, and the unknown future I forget about the hell I was redeemed from. I forget about the burning in my heart for the broken. And of the God whose heart of love for people is greater then my comprehension.

I wonder where this book will lead. I wait for the whispers of my rescuing Savior. And in the mean time focus on following His heart as I pack up our home.