Break Your Heart

While trying to get used to the new city I’m living in, I’ve found myself spending lots of time in the car. As I’m driving, I love to blare Taio Cruz’s song “Break Your Heart”. If you haven’t heard it, it’s a hip hop song that’s rapidly climbing the Top 40 charts. I was frustrated, though, because while it’s so catchy and fun, the message is pretty sad. I feel like it’s just another way culture is telling us that disposable, selfish relationships are okay. Taio is warning his new girlfriend that he’s using her, and because of his “misbehavin’” problem that he’s gonna break her heart in the end. But I knew there had to be some redemptive quality to the song. As it was replaying through my head, I realized that heartbreak is a big part of the Christian mystery. Here is what this song has to do with Jesus:

Jesus’ Brokenness.

The Passion was all about Jesus being broken for us, but it didn’t end there. His heart breaks over and over again with every sin committed by the world. Love means being broken willingly for your beloved, and He set the perfect example of love for us on the cross. During every Mass we also remember Him being broken for us. When Jesus is present under the appearance of bread and wine, the Priest holds up the Eucharist and breaks it. Jesus chooses to be broken in this way in every moment on the altars of the world solely for love of us. How beautiful is that?

Why Our Hearts Break.

In response to his breaking heart, our hearts will break. When you love someone deeply and they hurt, so do you. If Jesus is broken constantly, then those who love him will hurt when they see and understand the effect sin has on Him and the carelessness of the world’s view of sin.

Jesus Breaks Us to Make Us.

In order to make us one with him, Jesus has to cleanse us of our own sinful attachments. He does this by allowing tough stuff to happen in our lives. It’s not easy for Jesus to allow those things but everything is for our greater good. We can even look at these things with joy and thanksgiving, because they are an opportunity to show our love for Him. When we experience pain and brokenness we’re close to Jesus on the cross and in the Eucharist. He’s the only one who can soothe our pain.

Maybe Taio is right- being in love with someone isn’t always a feel good deal. The huge difference about loving Jesus though, is that when our heart is breaking it’s not because he’s leaving us. Instead, He’s passionately loving us and allowing us to share in the constant condition of his own life!

So take that culture. I just redeemed one of your secular Top 40 hits by bringing Jesus to it. Boom.