Broken...?

Friday, April 08, 2011
Broken…? What breaks your heart? I know we’ve all experienced the reality of true heartbreak at some point or another. You have walked the journey of having your heart broken by someone you love, and it’s a very difficult thing to endure. Even at a very young age we can experience the depth of heartbreak, even though we may lack the mechanisms to properly cope with it. As we grow older, hopefully we grow into a greater depth of maturity that helps us deal with heartbreak, though it never becomes easy.
So would you think me strange if I told you that I actually am asking God to break my heart…? Every once in a while you have one of those “Aha!” moments. I had such a moment yesterday afternoon on my bus. I have around 65 students on my bus on any given afternoon. A large percentage of these students don’t attend church regularly, and an even larger percentage probably don’t know Christ. I’ve known that from the first day of school.
Every morning I pray for these students in my morning prayer time. I pray for them again as I walk down the empty isle of my bus right after I start it each morning. Prayer is important, and it’s a necessary key in evangelism, always. Without prayer, our efforts to point others to Christ would fail every time, because only God can change and prepare hearts. So I’ll keep praying, no doubt. But just praying isn’t enough.
I also try to live my life before them, for the short amount of time I’m with them, for the glory of Christ. I don’t say things that point them away from Him. I don’t treat people in a way that points them away from Him. I don’t talk down about others, because that would point them away from Him. And I do my best to be as kind, compassionate, caring, and friendly to each of them as I possibly can be. I am nowhere near where I want to be in the above areas, but I’m striving to be better every day, because I care about their eternities.
I’m limited by the law as to the extent that I can present Christ to them. As their bus driver and an employee of the Cabot Public Schools, I can’t stop the bus and stand up to give them a detailed presentation of the Gospel. I can’t do that, because if I did I would lose my opportunity to make an impact altogether when the school district fired me for preaching on the bus. So I’m not going that route.
But the law doesn’t put restraints on my life. And when a student initiates a conversation and begins asking questions about my faith, or why I do what I do, the door is wide open for me to share with them the reasons for it all. But yesterday, when my “Aha!” moment came, I realized the seriousness of the lostness of so many of these students. And I began to realize I can’t do this on my own.
I not only need God to work on their hearts so that my efforts of living for Him would sink in and they would notice Him in me, but I also need the students that are on that bus that do know Him to begin to stand up too. These students that need Christ must see His ability to change lives in us. They won’t see perfection, not in me or anyone else. But they’ve got to see a difference in us and them that doesn’t come from us being “better” than them, but from us knowing a God that is.
My heart is heavy and, yes, broken, for these students today. So would you do me a favor – would you join me in praying, daily, for the students of Cabot bus 91? Would you lift up their home lives, school lives, and eternal lives? Would you join me in asking God to raise up the Christian students on the bus to point them to Him, as they aren’t limited in their ability to do so? And would you pray that when opportunities arise, God will give me just the right words to share so as to not miss even the slightest opportunity to show Him to them?
Thank you. God has big things in store for us all. He is faithful.



That’s just a thought, and I welcome yours.
Until next time,
blake

This blog is brought to you courtesy of http://fromblake.blogspot.com. Visit today and sign up to become an official follower!
If you’d like to receive “A Thought From Blake” in your email inbox every day, send an email to the address below to be signed up!
Feel free to write blake anytime at pastorblakeman@yahoo.com