To many, brokenness is the ultimate shame- the ultimate loss
of dignity. Hardly anyone wants to feel weak; scarcely anyone wants to be on
their knees burdened with sorrow or pain. However, I long for, and envy those
effected by, brokenness. Have you met, (or maybe you are) a person who has
endured the hardest things- like coming close to death, fighting disease,
losing someone close to them, or destroying themselves with drugs, alcohol, or indulgence
in sex- and still come out alive, repenting, but shattered? Those people are my
role models because I’ve found from past experience, and from scripture, that a
key way to drive your passion for God is to be broken- to be at your weakest
point. And what I want more than anything
right now is a closer relationship with Christ.
Why, you may ask, would a God who supposedly loves you let
you be broken? The answer can be found in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10,
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
I want you to focus, for now, on the part where Jesus says, “My
grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Christ
wants us to be broken because when we are completely shattered, and I’m talking
about the I-just-dropped-my-iPhone-and-the-screen-is-so-cracked-it-no-longer-works
kind of shattered, that’s when we have to completely rely on God to pick up the
pieces because let’s face it, He’s the ultimate apple repair guy. My minister
once told me that we are like vessels, lamps of God’s light. And the more
cracked, the more broken we are, the more of God’s light shines through us.
Now let’s look at the end of the passage where Paul says, “For
when I am weak, then I am strong.” It’s simple, so incredibly straight forward-
when we are broken, we have the opportunity to be incredibly strong in Christ.
This is really the part of brokenness I most long for. To be honest, I’m so
desperate to know Christ more, that I wouldn’t care if my house burned down as
long as it brought me closer to Him.
Matt Chandler said, “The pastor took a red rose, and he
smelled it, then he showed how pretty it was, and threw it out into the crowd.
He said, ‘Everybody needs to smell this.’ – there were about a thousand of us
there almost all of us college and high school- ‘Smell the rose,’ he said. ‘I
want you to feel it, I want you to touch it, I want you to feel the texture of it
- do it, do it and I’m going to continue to teach.’ … And as the sermon wraps
up, he says, ‘Where’s my rose? Where is it- where’s my rose?’ and some kid came
up with the rose, and it was completely jacked up and just broken, things are
falling off, the petals are torn, and the preacher lifts it up and in his big crescendo,
in his big point, he held up that rose and said ‘Now who would want this? Who
would want this rose?’ And I remember
feeling anger- real, legitimate, I-want-to-hurt-him anger, and it was all I could
do not to scream out, ‘JESUS WANTS THE ROSE! THAT’S THE POINT OF THE GOSPEL,
that Jesus wants the rose! That God
made he who knew no sin to be sin, on our behalf that we might become the righteousness
of God through Him! That while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!”
Do you understand? We are the rose, broken and torn, and
without God we would be left to drown in our misery. Yet we have been vouched
for! Being broken is a blessing because by being broken, we are given this
incredible opportunity to grow closer to the one who died for us. Matthew 5:3
says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Soon
enough, brokenness will affect you, if it hasn’t or isn’t already. Take advantage
of being shattered, let God pick up the pieces because what could ever be better
than growing closer to Him who created all things?
