grass through cement

I read this today in Tom Sine's book The New Conspirators: Creating the future one mustard seed at a time.

"like grass through cement, it is God breaking through the rock-hard horror of our world with surprisingly small blades of life and promise"

My heart has been confronted with the amount of pain that exists just within the block that I call my neighborhood. As an American society we have become experts at covering up and concealing our pain with mere temporary solutions. Layer after layer the pain has been built up and the outward reflection of that pain comes in various forms. For some, drugs, alcohol, food meet that need and for others sex, shopping, money, social life are methods used to fill the void. We use any number of things to numb and dull the constant nagging that we and the world around us is simply not right.

How do we actively walk alongside of the hurting and hopeless with which our lives intersect? How has Christ uniquely gifted us to remove a layer at a time until He can reclaim them at their most innocent and honest state?