Got up to news of Christians massacred in Kenya. Then read the 2014 "State of Homelessness" report. Connected with that was a report of a series of attacks-- vicious, horrid attacks--over the last year on the homeless. Images of the meager possessions of the homeless being seized in a city in Oklahoma, and blankets for the homeless outlawed in a city in Florida. The news here in St. Louis breaks that the Grand Jury is set to announce their findings, and protests, if not riots, are expected, and fears and tensions rise.

In my feed and in my messages are quiet prayer requests and heartbreaking personal stories of the day.

And the often repeated thought that every three seconds someone dies (usually a child) due to poverty related concerns around the world. 1...2...3.

We are so broken. Shards of shattered dreams and hopes against the brutality of the human condition; pleas for compassion drowning in an anthem of personal ambitions, greed and quests for power.

"And the hearts of many shall grow cold" (Matthew 24:12)....but what about the hearts that break and weep?

Heartsick and soul weary, it is so tempting to look away. To pretend that all is well and that the cries of the hurting are not our concern.

Where would we have been if Christ had left us to drown in our own pleadings and terrors? If God had decided our sins, the cause of all our brokenness, were our concern only?

As the sadness and bleakness of our crumbling world sticks in my throat and clogs my heart, I hold fast to this: that from heaven Christ came to walk with us, love us, suffer with us, teach us and die for us. From the Cross the time table was set that all this misery would be defeated, that all wrongs be made right, and every tear wiped from the eyes of those who love the Lord.

We're so broken, but He will heal us.

And as we wait for all to be made anew and whole, let us not look away, let us not turn. If our hearts break, then let us offer our sorrow to the Lord in passionate prayer for the lost and hurting, the martyred and suffering. As long as we have eyes to see, let us not avert our eyes and give our consent by omission. As long as we have ears, let us listen and take note. As long as we have voices, let us be witnesses and advocates. And as long as we have hands, let us help.

This world is broken, but we can do our part.

And as I long for the place where all good things are really there and true, as I long for the day we step out of the Shadowland into the King's country, I'll do my best to keep faith with my Lord, who died for love of broken people such as you and I. If He could endure the Cross...how can we look away?

-Beth Haynes Butler