Brokenness

Lately, I am finding brokenness everywhere around me.

It seems everyone I come in contact with seems hurt and broken in some way. I hurt for them.

They either just want to talk about their brokenness or they want to know how to fix it, but when I tell them my suggestions, they say, "That's too hard" or "That won't work for me." Not because they have tried it, but because they don't want to fix it THAT way.

They would rather stay broken than try something new? I don't think so. I think it is because they are afraid.

Fixing brokenness requires letting yourself be vulnerable sometimes. You have to show someone your wound. That leaves your wound open to be poked at and possibly creates more pain.

An example would be when a doctor has to set a broken bone. When he pulls it back into place, it HURTS, but it can't heal properly unless it is in the right place. Once it heals properly though, it is stronger than ever.

The same goes with emotional brokenness. It is painful and difficult, but worth the pain to have the healing.

I told my kids tonight that they are already broken. Everyone is broken. Sometimes we break ourselves, sometimes we give others the power to break us, and sometimes we get broken through no fault of our own.

I think the first step is in identifying where we are broken. We can't change others, so we must start by changing ourselves. Either we remove ourselves from whatever is hurting us (which requires trust in God and can be painful in itself) or we have to stop letting whatever we are allowing to hurt us, be viewed as something painful...perhaps the problem is with our perception. Finally, we must look to see if we are saying and doing things to ourselves that are harmful and stop doing those things (whether those things are physical or mental).

Then, we have to let God fill in those broken places. I am not saying it is easy to do, but when we find a place where we are broken, we need to put our trust of God in that place and know that He uses the most broken jars of clay for great things.

Isaiah 64:8

Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Romans 9:20-24

But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' "Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?

What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

2 Corinthians 4:4-9

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness,"made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

God bless