Do you mourn?

Last week the following email showed up in my inbox. I forwarded the email to my pastor, along with a few friends who have a heart for the village I live in. Please allow me to share the email with you.

Mourning for Your CityTGIF Today God Is First Volume 2, by Os Hillman03-24-2008
"When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven" (Neh 1:4).
Nehemiah lived in the world of politics. He was a high ranking worker in the government of Babylon. His official title was cupbearer for King Artazerzes. He would be considered the modern-day U.S. Secret Service agent who made sure the King was safe from being poisoned.
Judah had been driven into exile and some of his friends had just returned with news about his fellow brothers and sisters in Jerusalem.
In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem. They said to me, "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire" (Neh 1:1-3).
Nehemiah's response upon hearing the news is the kind of response that is necessary for a Christian leader to impact his or her city. He responded by weeping for the condition of his beloved city. He immediately went into prayer and asked for God's direction on how he could be a positive impact on his city. He developed a strategy to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. He accomplished the task in only fifty-two days.
Do you weep for your city? God is calling forth men and women from the marketplace today to be catalyst to impact their cities. Begin today to pray for your city and ask God how you can be a catalyst to rebuild the spiritual wall of your city.
So this email got me thinking, do I mourn over my village? Do we mourn over lost people? Do we mourn over a lost nation?

I forwarded this email last Monday morning to a few people, and shared that I felt we should set aside time to fast and pray for our village, I also expressed an interest in the names of our city council. Within an hour I not only had names of the council members, but also the drug dealers in town. You see up to this point our county sheriff has not been too interested in cleaning up my village-dealers have to go somewhere, so let it be here. Do you believe that prayer, and "mourning for your city" changes things? YOU'D BETTER BELIEVE IT!! In the past week the sheriff and state highway patrol have spent several days in town, with over a dozen arrests. Did this all just happened? I don't think so.

The Word tells us we are salt and light to the world. How can we ever imagine changing a world if we're not willing to mourn for our little village?

Take a few minutes and ask God who, or what, would he have you mourn over-it could be a village, it could be the homeless, it could be those dying with AIDS....our calling is always to a person or people. Find your passion, and share Christ with the world.