He was just a kid. Or was he? That’s two statements that someone might have said about Clint Rhodes in quick succession when discovering what he did as a teenager. He was perhaps as normal and well-adjusted as any other young person, and yet sensitive enough to say “Break My Heart” when he thought about himself and his peers in relation to the God he’d been raised to honor. Perhaps Clint was near Midlothian in northeast Texas (see map here), or perhaps at least somewhere in that state in 1997, but for sure one can say he was near the heart of the One to whom he prayed the day he penned his poem. You think he also might have been in touch with or reading about the king who authored Psalm 51 in the wake of a very great sin? Meet Clint Rhodes, and see what he has to say.
I’ll let Clint say it in his own words, regarding what was going on when he took up his pen as a youth:
I wrote it 24 years ago now when I was a Junior in High School. I was preparing to give a message to my youth group about having a soft and contrite heart in relation to our sin rather than a hard heart. I think sometimes God needs to love us with tough love to help us see our sin for what it is so asking him to break our hearts is asking for this love.
What teenager have you known who asked for what Clint did in 1997? I certainly didn’t when I was 17 years old! Instead, what often comes from the mouth of a teenager sounds more like ‘why are you so mean?’, ‘my friends get to do this!’, and ‘stop treating me like a baby!’. And, does it really stop when the teenager grows up, or does the rebel just mature physically? You could ask the now-40-something Clint about it if you contacted him today in his role as a minister at the Creekside Church in Midlothian. And, as a father, he could probably tell you about the responses his own children provide to the discipline he undoubtedly has to dispense on occasion. Do you think it would be unusual if Clint said that his kids or any of the church’s members asked, as a matter of course, for their hearts to be broken? So, agreed that it would be somewhat rare for any of us, young or old, to ask to be broken. But Clint knew that repentance is important, and that that begins with submission to a God who loves those He’s made.
That ‘tough love’ Clint mentions must have been something he saw was needed in his youth group. What was going on that spurred Clint is probably not that much different than what you might imagine goes on among youth almost anywhere. Perhaps seeing the consequences of bad choices made by those he knew was what helped Clint underscore his message to his friends. And, bible stories add a lot of punch too, particularly those about King David and perhaps the biggest mistake he ever made (2 Sam. 12), and the tough love God had to use on him to soften his heart. Clint’s method was not that different than David’s --write a song, and save it to remind yourself and others that humility is the posture we need before Him.
The song story was acquired via electronic communication with the author on 10/7/2020, and is the only source for the story.
Read a few facts about the song’s author at the church where he ministers here: https://creekside-church.com/team/
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