Cold and Broken

My senses were heightened as a brisk wind hit me the short block and a half walk to get a sandwich on my lunch break. My ears were opened to the cries of angry people. My eyes were opened to the eyes of lonely people. My heart was opened to a homeless man who finds better love from a dog than the people passing him every day.


Despite the sirens and the chatter, the car engines and the wind, what echoed in my mind were the lyrics "it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah." Those words finally hit me and rang so true with a hurting world surrounding me.


We're all just beggars at His door crying out, and it's a cold and broken hallelujah.


I try to be kind and smile at as many people as possible. I hold a short conversation with the woman serving me in the lunch line. I hope and pray that those things are enough because right now I feel as if that's all I can do. Give a little kindness. Show a little love. Remind someone to be thankful for a warm work place.


But really, my heart breaks. My cold and broken hallelujah is that one that cries out for other people to wake up. My hallelujah praises in the hope that there is more. Be thankful for what you have. Give away what you don't need. Because your hallelujah may be for your family or your friends, your hallelujah might be for a new jacket or food for your pet, your hallelujah might be cold and broken, but it's not any more cold and broken than anyone elses. We're all crying out. We're all praising with a hallelujah. We're all cold and broken.


The only way to make those hallelujahs warm and whole is by being Jesus, by bringing Jesus into the cold and broken, by sharing love and smiles with those who need it just as much as you do. Because we're all drastically different, but we're all simply the same. We're all in need of a Savior. 


Be more. Do more.