You know in the movie Superman, when he soars up into space and just sits and listens to the sounds of suffering and need in the world below? I've been thinking tonight about our world, and how much it needs, and how broken it is... And it's almost too much to bear... It's too easy to turn a deaf ear, to close my eyes, to shut off the thoughts, because of the bottomless need - the thought of every desperate heartbeat out there...
The heartbeat of a screaming three-week-old infant girl, left by her mother on the side of the road in China, who has lost even her name...
The racing heartbeat of a streetboy of Brazil, as he finds a hideout for the night, while policemen around the city are hunting him and his kind for extermination...
The duet of heartbeats in the frightened, pregnant teen at an abortion clinic...
The lonely heartbeat of the forgotten old woman in the nursing home...
The homeless man...
The war-scarred Liberian orphan...
The hopeless hordes of postmodern youth...
The heartbeats coming to an end in dark alleys, cold hospitals, empty homes, chaos and bloodshed...
Where can I even begin? What can I even do? There are so many, there is so much, I am so small... My tears are worthless in the face of these worldwide scars. What does my one heart breaking accomplish in the midst of this suffering?
Yet even as I think through this, I turn to Christ... I am awed by the magnitude of His love. I am speechless as I get a glimpse of His heart for His creation that He loves so dearly. I want to fall before His feet at the thought of the suffering, the sins, the curse of all humanity that He took upon His shoulders as He stretched His arms wide and open to all on the cross.
And all I can say is, "Here I am, Lord, send me"...
I was reminded of that note that I wrote back in February by the song "Heart Still Beats" by Brave Saint Saturn, which continues to touch my heart every time I hear it. In it, the singer describes two encounters with lost and hurting people whom it is all too easy to ignore and walk away, because really, 'What could I possibly do that would help?'....
But his heart still beats inside
The blood runs through his veins.
A remnant of life remains
And his heart still beats inside.
The thought it comes to mind, to somehow intervene
But it could bring me trouble, and what can I do anyway?
It's hard to be effective, when it happens so often
To see a life unravelling, through drawn Venetian blinds.
I'm sickened by compassion, I'm stifled by my limitations
Anesthetic apathy, come take the pain away.
And my heart still beats inside
And the blood runs through my veins.
A remnant of life remains
And my heart still beats inside.
O God, we need You here.
We're sinking fast and we don't care.
The evidence is all around me.
On both sides of my door.
Our hearts beat.
The very fact that there are living, breathing souls out there whose hearts are still beating should inspire us to restlessly reach out and touch them with the hands of Christ...
I pray for the courage to meet the hatred of the world with love.
I'm weak and too easily intimidated, but my heart beats, and it's beating for You, Lord!
Wow, that was beautiful- powerful words and raw emotion. I can relate to the thoughts "There are so many, there is so much, I am so small..." I feel it every day here... I've found the only way to keep from being overwhelmed is to surround oneself with hope as well as suffering.
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