What Breaks Your Heart?

We live in a world of self-improvement and always seem to be asking, "what should I do about me?" That is great and self-inspection is not necessarilly a bad thing, but if you really want to become a better person, you need to figure out how to make the world a better place.

The best way to figure out how to do that is to ask yourself the question, "what breaks your heart?" What is the one thing, one category, one area or one group of people that makes something rise up in you and makes you come alive when you think about it? This is a scary question and the problem with asking it is that it will require something of you. Some time, some money, some missed opportunities and usually some missed life. We are by nature "life preservers", not "life givers" and that is the tension. As we wrestle with this tension, Jesus comes along and says, "Whoever devotes themselves to themselves will have nothing but themselves to show for themselves". Put another way, if you only have you to show for yourself at the end of your life, it will be a total loss.

If you wrestle with the question, "what breaks your heart", you will eventually be led away from you. You will eventually be led to self-denial, not self-improvement. It is an invitation to rescue you from you and here is what I know about you...you are not enough for you to live for! There is more to you than a body and a balance sheet. It is also an invitation to significance and to be something unique. To live a life of purpose and that is what we are all seeking.

Purpose is always found on the other side of the border from "what's in it for me?" The best thing that you can do for you often has very little to do with you. So...what breaks your heart? Who is doing something about it and how can you help?

Take the time to wrestle with this question because at some point along the way, we will all ask the question "does any of this really matter?" If the answer to that question is, if it is all about you, NO it doesn't matter. You are not enough to devote your life to, so figure out what breaks your heart and get after it.

Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive. - Howard Thurman