tears for pasadena?

I recently recieved an update from a friend who is serving God somewhere in Asia, and it floored me. It floored me becuase she was so passionate about the people she was ministering to, so passionate about the fact that they were lost. She said she cried for them. No, more than that...she begged God for them INDIVIDUALLY, as if each one of them broke her heart. How close to the heart of God this is!

Now, my predicament is that I am not burdened for the people I am serving in Maryland. Not that I don't care about them, but there is a difference between caring about people and the compassion God has for them. My prayer is that God would break His people for those who would become His people. That means me mourning the fact that Pasadena is mostly lost. That means you overcoming the fear of talking to your neighbor about Christ. That means Christians actually taking the mind of Christ each and every day, seeing a lost world, and "having compassion on them, for they [are] like sheep without a shepard."

What a difference this would have on the world, if Christians would be burdened for the lost! We are the priests the prophet Joel spoke of when he wrote:

"'Even now', declares the Lord, 'return t0 me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.' Rend your heart and not your garments...Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, 'Spare your people, O Lord.'" -Joel 2:12-13, 15-17