Broken

Some of you know the story, but when I was in college I had a little accident once in which I was standing up from sitting on the floor, and I lost my balance and fell down.  My rear end (and all my weight) landed on top of my right foot. A few hours later I couldn’t even get a shoe on it, my foot was so swollen.  A friend took me to the Piedmont ER, and a really nice radiologist took an x-ray of my foot.  He gave me what I thought was good news, “Your foot’s not broken but you did crack several bones.” I was relieved that I didn’t break my foot, but he went on to tell me that a crack is much worse than a break. What?

Yes, a crack is less painful than a break.

But a cracked bone can’t be set, and therefore it doesn’t ever really heal the way a set bone will.

And until we are broken before God, He won’t be able to perform a complete healing in our lives.  I will go further and say that for many of us, we have to be completely broken before we will realize that we can’t fix ourselves.  We can dig as deep as possible to look within ourselves, and all we will find is more darkness, pain and depravity. Apart from Him, we are helpless to help ourselves.

So you thought you had to keep this up
All the work that you do
So we think that you’re good
And you can’t believe it’s not enough
All the walls you built up
Are just glass on the outside

Cracks are good, painful reminders for us that there is sin in our lives.  They do hurt, and they do get our attention. They may come in the form of damaged relationships, hangovers, a positive sign on a pregnancy test, a ruined reputation, lies, shame, guilt…

Afraid to let your secrets out
Everything that you hide
Can come crashing through the door now
But too scared to face all your fear
So you hide but you find
That the shame won’t disappear

Brokenness is much different.  Broken is Jonah in the pitch black belly of a fish. Broken is King David as he helplessly watches his children destroy each other.  Broken is Naomi when she buries her husband, then her sons, then her dreams of grandchildren. Broken is Peter when the rooster’s crow reveals the true nature of his heart. Broken is Saul when in his blindness he finally feels the weight of what he has done.

So let ‘em fall down
There’s freedom waiting in the sound
When you let your walls fall to the ground
We’re here now

Brokenness takes two. It takes God allowing us to suffer, and it takes our submission to the suffering. We have to stop fighting whatever “it” is.  Sometimes we are blindsided with it, and sometimes it creeps in slowly, almost undetected until it’s too late. And given our human nature, it is easy to go into “I can fix it” mode, or denial. But fighting, denying and failed attempts at fixing won’t work.  Bitterness doesn’t help, either. We have to fully surrender to God in the pain, and let Him work.

This is where the healing begins
This is where the healing starts
When you come to where you’re broken within
The light meets the dark

Healing is necessary. Allowing God to set the broken places and shape us into the person He created us to be is absolutely essential. We are born into this world under the curse of The Fall. So we take our first breath, already cracked and enemies of our Creator. And being good enough and doing good things are like the ugly boot I had to wear after my accident.  They are a great band-aid, but they don’t fix what’s broken. Good deeds don’t have the power to redeem us.  Our works don’t save us.

And that’s the real issue. More than our suffering and circumstances, sin is our real problem. And there is only one answer.

Jesus

He came to set the captives free, to bind up the brokenhearted, to turn the ashes of our suffering into a crown of beauty.

Sparks will fly as grace collides
With the dark inside of us
So please don’t fight
This coming light
Let this blood come cover us
His blood can cover us

One of my favorite Beth Moore quotes is one she said to her husband Keith, as they were discussing the tragic circumstances of his childhood,

“You’re a much neater person healed than you ever would have been well.”

Stop striving for perfection. Allow God to break you, and then wait for Him to heal you.

Healed isn’t perfection, and it isn’t getting it all “right.” Healed is Jonah prophesying to Nineveh. Healed is David knowing his son would build the temple. Healed is Naomi rocking her grandson, Obed, who would be named in the genealogy of the Savior.  Healed is Peter, who fed the sheep and counted it an honor to die for Christ. And healed is Paul, who preached the same gospel he once scorned.  Healed is letting God get in there and fix what ever it is that’s holding you back from fulfilling His purpose in your life.

So let it fall down
There’s freedom waiting in the sound
When you let your walls fall to the ground
We’re here now
We’re here now

This is where the healing begins
This is where the healing starts
When you come to where you’re broken within
The light meets the dark
The light meets the dark

(Lyrics from Healing Begins by Tenth Avenue North)

Advertisement

---