Our enemy is a breaker. He tears down. He destroys. He rips lives and relationships apart. He breaks our spirits with lies and crushes our hopes and dreams. He brings division and defeat.
What is broken in your life? Your spirit? Your marriage? Your heart? A relationship with a family member? Your trust of others?
The Bible tells a story of a woman who I can only imagine was incredibly broken. I know I’ve written before about the woman at the well (the story can be found in John 4), because I think the way Jesus interacted with her was so powerful. But, let’s consider this woman for just a moment. She was a woman. First strike against her. In that time and society, women were definitely considered “less than.” That carries a certain brokenness. She was a Samaritan. Second strike. The Samaritans were hated by Jews, which had to be painful. (I can hardly handle it when one person looks at me grumpily, I can’t imagine having a whole nationality of people who just hated me.) The passage says that she came to the well at noon. This is indicative of the fact that among her peers she was an outcast, because she did not travel to the well at the typical “water fetching time” when all the other women went for water. She traveled alone. This in and of itself would lead me to believe that she was broken. And then there is that juicy tidbit that Jesus brings up, “you don’t have a husband – for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now.” (vs 18) Yeeowza! I don’t know what the circumstances were that led her to have had FIVE husbands (death, divorce, infidelity…), but this poor woman had been through a lot in her life. She truly was an outcast. Can you imagine how broken her heart was? How many times had she been cheated on, or dumped, or used by men? Can you imagine how broken her spirit was? The other women in town probably ridiculed her and mocked her until she stopped even traveling for water with them. She had been torn down and broken to pieces and she took her broken pieces and fell into the arms of yet another lover, hoping that his love would mend her.
What do you do with the brokenness you carry? We can take our broken pieces a lot of places. Some people take their broken pieces to a bottle and try to drink them away. Some people take them to their refrigerator and try to eat away their brokenness. We can take our pieces to another person and hope that they will not leave us more broken than before. Some try to shop their way out of brokenness, thinking that if they just have “that one thing” the pieces of their life will fall into place. Maybe you try to escape your broken pieces by immersing yourself in video games or Facebook or binge watching Netflix. Many of us hang on to all our pieces just as tightly as we can, pretending that we are fine and hoping that no one else will notice the brokenness we carry around.
Do you know what is wrong with all of these options?
None of them will fix our brokenness. No drink from a bottle ever fixes the problem, it just blurs our view of it temporarily. No piece of cheesecake or tub of icecream can ever mend a broken heart. No matter how loving and Godly, every person on this earth will fall short and let us down (even if unintentionally) at some point. Buying another “thing” won’t repair our damaged emotions. And a thousand billion Facebook friends won’t remedy a broken spirit that has been damaged by hurtful words. We can try all we may, but faking that we are fine will never make us fine.
There is only ONE way to fix broken. We need to take all our broken pieces back to the Creator and let Him put them back together.
Our God is a God who specializes in fixing broken things. He rebuilds things that have been torn down. He redeems that which seems to be beyond repair. He restores what has been broken. God is a master at taking shattered things and creating beautiful masterpieces with them.
Here’s the integral requirement that seems to keep many of us from being fixed: We have to trust God enough to take Him all our broken pieces. At some point we have to realize that all of our attempts at fixing and faking just aren’t working. We have to acknowledge that He, God, is the only One who can rebuild and restore. And, we have to humble ourselves enough to turn to Him for help.
Many times this isn’t easy, because being fixed is painful. It may require work and it may take longer than you would like. It likely will require gathering all the broken pieces and naming them. Forgiveness may be necessary – and forgiveness can be difficult. Sometimes healing requires more breaking, like a bone that has healed improperly and needs to be re-broken before it can be fixed. And typically the whole process will necessitate oodles of humility.
This is why I think so many of us walk around broken, trying to self-medicate or pretend. We are just too darn scared of the fixing process.
But, don’t turn tail and run. Because there is great hope! We are NOT alone. Our God is the fixer of broken things. He is the healer. He is the mender of wounds and the artist who creates masterpieces out of our broken shards. And best yet, is what HE does with the brokenness. He redeems it! God is the redeemer of broken things. He can take whatever has broken you down and use it in the most magnificent and glorious ways! Be encouraged! Have hope! That very thing which Satan intended to destroy you…God intends to use for your good and His glory! Trust Him! Take Him all your broken pieces, I dare you to do it…because I just know He has amazing things in store for you!
You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. Genesis 50:20
<Listen to this song by Ellie Holcomb, “The Broken Beautiful“>
At 5a.m. I woke up, crawled out of Daniel’s bed (not quite sure what time the cry came that prompted me to crawl into it) and stumbled back through the darkness to my own spot in my own bed.
this is how we walk 