Broken arrows

Children are like arrows; they must be aimed in the right direction. When they’re aimed in the wrong direction, they may become involved in harmful habits or destructive lifestyles. And as long as we jeer at or judge them, they will never feel comfortable turning to us for help as they go through life. Broken arrows come in all forms. Pain isn’t prejudiced; it spares no age group, cultural background, or social strata. What’s the answer? Let the strong bear the infirmities of the weak (see Romans 15:1). ‘Jesus…had compassion on them and healed their sick’ (Matthew 14:14 NLT). Compassion is the mother of miracles! When the disciples thought they would die in the storm, they didn’t challenge Christ’s power, they challenged His compassion: ‘Carest thou not that we perish?’ (Mark 4:38 KJV). Where there is no compassion, there will be no miracle. Only when you’re moved by someone’s pain rather than turned off by their symptoms can you bring healing to them. One author writes: ‘We can build all the churches we want. But if people cannot find a loving voice within our hallowed halls, they will pass through unaltered by our clichés and religious rhetoric. Church is not a club for the well-heeled, but a hospital for those needing to be healed and set free. You don’t have to like everything about the people you’re called to minister to, but you do have to love them because God does.’ We have been called to gather up those the world has thrown away because they matter to God: ‘“They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “on the day that I make them My jewels”’ (Malachi 3:17 NKJV).