Why we need our hearts broken

 

Have you had your heart broken lately? It’s important that you do. It helps us to look like Jesus. America is such a comfortable place – and who doesn’t like comfort? The problem, though, is that comfort can be corrosive to our souls.

 

As uncomfortable as it may be, we need our hearts broken to keep them supple.

In Guatemala City, pressed up against a concrete wall, is a neighborhood riddled with crime,
its grid divided by the gangs who claim it. And on the other side of
that wall is a mountain of trash, which tumbles into a valley and sits,
rotting in the sun. 

 

Here, people struggle to survive. There isn’t always enough food to fill
one stomach at the table, let alone all the little bellies begging for
nourishment. Lights blink on and off when the electricity is paid, and
water is too dirty to bathe in, let alone drink. Without insurance or
the money for medical care, many pregnant women give birth at home.
Their little ones aren’t reported to the government, and don’t receive
official documentation of their existence, like a birth certificate.
Simply put, legally these children do not exist and they cannot attend
school.

 

A few years ago, a woman named Marta dreamed of a school for the children of the wall. Today she rents a
building for a school and a room in a nearby building for them all to
meet in, right across from the building she lives in, mere feet from the
trash heap. This isn’t just a school, however, for many of the children
live there as well. Abandoned by their families, they have no where
else to go. She takes them in, cooks for them every meal, and cares for
them. 

 

During the exercise class that happened after chapel, I noticed one
little girl not participating. She stood there with her finger in her
mouth, refusing to move. The teacher let her be, and I wondered why. A worker came over and motioned to the girl, “Do you see the little one
over there? Her father dropped her off at the school two weeks ago and
told us that he couldn’t do it anymore; that he couldn’t be her father
anymore.”

 

Just like that, she was abandoned.