I attended a seminary in Philadelphia that was located in an urban community scarred with all of the physical, personal, and socioeconomic blight that has inflicted many communities in America’s greatest cities.Each day I would carpool to the seminary with three or four future pastors to study the rich theology of God’s Word for the purpose of preparing ourselves to minister to sinners dealing with the difficulties of life in a broken world.We would have the most amazing and exciting conversations as we rode back and forth together. I loved those trips as much as I enjoyed the classes.One morning the car was quiet, and I looked out the window beyond myself and my posse of future theologians. For the first time I really saw broken houses, cars, and people. There was crying need everywhere I looked.I sat in the back seat of that seminary-bound car and began to weep, not just at the obvious destructiveness of sin on that community, but at my own blindness. I had been in that community day after day, but I had been utterly blind to anything beyond me and mine. I was preparing for the ministry, but I had a shockingly uncaring heart.
PAUL DAVID TRIPP
When I read that experience of Paul David Tripp, I couldn't help to think how common it is in all our lives. Our hearts are capable of infinite deceptions. We need God to really open our hearts to see the world as he sees it.
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