What a year!! This year has been one of those glorious adventures, both painful and beautiful, unforgettable and nightmarish. One of the most amazing things that I have experienced is God’s ability to take your life, your cares, your dreams, your desires and your goals and shift them by the softening of your heart. I have experienced a transition from feeling sorrow for others in my own capacity to having my heart break for the things that break His.

What a blessing!! To stare through the eyes of our Creator and have what moves Him to tears move me.

It is Christmas now and all around are the signs of happiness, family and giving. Walking through the shops you are drawn to the wrapping paper and gifts that will present themselves to countless beaming faces on Christmas morning. It’s a wonderful time of year, but driving home the other day I had a heart breaking moment. My family stopped at a traffic light and standing to the right of us, drenched by the pouring rain was a boy, maybe 15.

He stood shivering by the cold of each rain drop, staring forward, daring not to lock onto any passers bye. His board expressed his desire for help in this season of giving. I opened the window to give him some money, not a small sum, but insignificant in comparison to what we bless each other with. As he looked into me, I could see what I thought was the rain were his tears and what I thought were his shivers, were his gentle sobs from a heart longing for a piece of the joy that we are feeling at this time of year.

He said “God bless you”, but the truth is, as God broke my heart for His Children once more, it was not me that needed another blessing, as I cannot imagine anything greater than having my heart broken for the things that breaks my Fathers heart. Bless you my friend!! As we drove away a great burden sank into my heart, how? How can I respond? God doesn’t break hearts for the feeling, but to realign us with what is important to him so that we may be His hands and His feet.

This task, this mission, this mantle has fallen on the men of God, the Fathers, to take up the baton and hit back, to regain the ground, to provide a home, to give shelter, to share life, to express love and provide homes that bring forth joy and create a place where His children know they are not alone, but rather loved with an infinite love and He has an unquenching desire to draw close to them.

Lord, show me how, give me the dream, and when You do I pray the size does not render me fearful but faith filled to move forward. I heard it said by Bill Hybels that all we need to know is, what is God doing, how do I fit into that plan, and then move towards it.

And if gripped by the possibility of failure let this be our counter attack. God bless

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt
26th president of US (1858 – 1919)