The Next Thing

I often wonder why I am drawn to broken people. Is it because I am broken?

I don’t think so. I believe I have something to offer those who are broken, and I feel their heartache and their pain. I empathize with their feelings, and cry with them.

I volunteer with a couple of groups, both of which cater to people who would be considered “broken”, yet not beyond rescue.

I feel the pain of my buddies when they tell me their heart-wrenching stories, and I want to make their pain, anger and frustration stop, but all I can do is be their friend. I want to let them know they are NOT worthless, and I can only hope they hear me.

I want to be the fixer in these lives, but I know I cannot. I am not a trained therapist and do not believe I have the patience to be a therapist, but I do have another skillset. I can listen, and ask questions, and I can offer some advice.

I can use my faith and God-given talents to help some of these people, I hope. I don’t think God gave me this heart to help the broken if I wasn’t supposed to use it.

So many people today want to do the platitudes – do any of these sound familiar? (I’m just as guilty of saying them as anyone!)

-         

      God won’t give you anything you can’t handle

-          God has a purpose for this

-          Nothing happens outside of God’s will

Okay, so you tell me, when you are in the middle of a CRISIS that those words will make you feel better.

Yeah, I didn’t think so. Sometimes you just need someone to hold you, or hold your hand, and sit silently and cry with you. Or you need someone to hear you RAGE at the situation.

No one needs platitudes when they are amid a crisis. Those words are not necessarily out of place, but if they are not said at the right time, then it sounds more like criticism or dismissive of the feelings the person in crisis has at the moment.

It is terrifying to embark upon a new path. I’m not changing careers at the moment. I think my career has me in a great place to help people in distress. I did that often at my last job, listening, offering calming advice and helping where I could.

If you have read anything I have ever written, you know that music plays a huge role in my life. I hear God often through music, through the words of a song or just in a melody. Something touches my heart, and I feel God moving in my life. Then I witness it happening.

Casting Crowns has a new album out and all I can say is WOW! The title song is called The Very Next Thing and it could not be more appropriate in my life right now. Check out these words, then watch the video.

Eyes wide open I see you working
All around me you're on the move
Step by step I'm running to meet you
In the next thing

With the very next words of love to be spoken
To the very next heart that's shattered and broken
To the very next way you're gonna use me
Show me the next thing

Galatians 6:2 (NASB)

² Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NASB)

¹¹ Therefore ^[a]encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.