Let my heart break with the things that break your heart Lord is one of my favorite prayers… almost a cry of the heart. Not to obtain some kind of falsified glory, rather because it draws you deeper into the heartbeat of God… But it is a heavy load… one which we truly can not stand under the weight of. Jesus once asked James and John (Mark 10:38) if they could drink the cup He drinks.

He prefaced that question with, “You don’t know what you are asking.” I’m sure he would say the same thing today… You want your heart to break with what breaks my heart? Really? Do you have any idea of the things you will see? The things you will have to deal with? Have you seen the way people treat each other? The molestation of a young child? The abuse of a spouse? The poverty of a third world country? The loss of a child? Or, as a friend traveling abroad just saw, the sight of a child playing on a rooftop with nothing to stop her if she fell, because her house was a tent behind her on that same rooftop. Yes, it happens.

We’ve all seen pictures. We’ve all hear the stories. And we all go on with our lives. But have our lives been changed? Altered at all by the plight of another? Have you ever cried with a grieving mother? Comforted a scared child? The horrors of this world run deep. The scars they leave are tender no matter how long ago they were “healed.”

Can we drink His cup… I think not, as even a drop is too much for us to handle. Or as my friend said, “We can’t but He can. But it is a bitter, bitter cup.” It is with knowing how little understanding of what we are asking, that we still ask, “Lord, let our hearts break with what breaks your heart.” For deep down we know if He breaks our hearts, it will be His compassion flowing from the wound.