I look around me and see the pain and sorrow that fills the world. It grieves my heart so deeply to see hear read about and feel the pain that fills so many. I have this natural inclination to reach out to the hurting and find a way to help them heal. It is so difficult to witness whether up close of from afar off such pain and brokenness and know there is NOTHING I can do to help ease the sting.
In the last 6 days alone, I have read about a Mommy who held the hand of her sweet 3 year old baby boy as he slipped from this life into eternity, I have read about and am praying for an 8 year old boy who was just diagnosed with brain tumors, I have a friend whose brother is a single father of 3 and suddenly collapsed rushed to the hospital and found to have a blood clot....thankfully recovery is in his future. I have seen horrors on the evening news, read headlines that cause me to weep over lives I don't even know.
I met a little boy who had been so severely beaten and burned that he will be permanently disfigured for LIFE yet his amazing courage and spunk brought me to my knees.
I think it may be true after all that trials and tribulations of life make us stronger, more courageous, wiser and better human beings. I hope.
I have prayed over these people and so many more, wept over them, Many of them I do not know nor will I probably ever have the chance to meet in real life.
Why then do I allow my heart to be ripped out of my chest, tossed about and then stomped on by the enormous boots of  human tragedy? I wish I had the answer to this question. It seriously has plagued me for quite some time now. Why do I care so deeply, so fully, so fiercely??Why do I weep tears that are laced with anger sorrow and fear? Sometimes I wonder what God was thinking when He created this heart to beat in this way.
I know one thing for sure....
These small snippets from other people's lives have given me a new perspective. My daily complaints and occasional criticism have no place in my life, world, vocabulary  seem to be considerably smaller than the way they felt even yesterday.