August 13, 2

Psalm 34 is paired with the Ephesians this week and one verse of that strikes such a chord with me. Verse 18: God is near to the brokenhearted and saves the "crushed in spirit." In our society a broken heart is so often equated with having a love affair go wrong or not achieving some goal or losing out to someone else in a contest of some sort. I don't think that's what this means. I read the reports daily from Lebanon and northern Israel and Iraq and I think of the broken hearted. Mary Mikael of the American University in Beirut said this week that in six days Israeli bombs undid all the work of rebuilding in Beirut over the past 15 years. That's brokenhearted. How can the Lebanese, Palestinian and Israeli civilians NOT be crushed in spirit as things spiral down. How about the villagers in Darfur as yet another peace agreement crumbles? How about the single moms at the shelter in New Haven I visited who turn to drugs to try to numb the spirit-crushing poverty and frustration they face daily? How do these folk know God is near?