Blessed And Broken

"Then He ordered the crowds to recline on the grass; and He took five loaves and the two fish, and, looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and BLESSED and BROKE the loaves and handed the pieces to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people."
                                                                                                                        Matthew 14:19




When Jesus saw that the multitudes who came to see Him were hungry, He was moved with compassion. The disciples in no way had the resources to feed such a crowd, but Jesus knew exactly how to meet their needs. They needed a miracle; that is His specialty. They were desperate to fill their emptiness and longing; He carried an abundance. Because their priority was being in His presence, He promised to add all the other things they would need.

The apostle, John, tells us that Jesus "knew what He was intending to do" (John 6:6). Using the bread as His example, He blessed it and broke it for all the people to see. This began His teaching on living a life of faith and a life of surrender before the Lord.

It all begins by giving Jesus all we have, including our brokenness. So often, we only want to share what we perceive as the "good" parts of ourselves with others and with God. Either consciously or subconsciously, we try to bury the less attractive aspects of our personalities or testimonies family history.

We hold onto our broken hearts, minds, dreams, and lives, hoping that someday they will miraculously get better. And yet, this is rarely the methodology God uses to bring about restoration. He asks us to trust Him with our brokenness and to give it to Him in full. Then, He asks us to trust the process that is required to bring about total redemption and restoration.

This is much easier said than done. If perfectionism is part of our DNA, the work required by the Lord is even more detailed and lengthy in the process. That is because perfectionism throws a veil over our brokenness and tries to pretend it just isn't there. To make matters worse, within the Christian community, we can immerse ourselves in good deeds to try to really convince ourselves of our own "goodness". And yet, this is not at all why Jesus died for us.

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free" (Galatians 5:1). No matter how much we try to cover up the brokenness, there is always still a nagging sense that our lives are not yet completely free in Christ. And, it is the faithfulness of God to continue to prod us until we succeed in the freedom for which He died.

Our lives are messy and God requires that we give our mess to Him. Human nature wants to wrap it up and put pretty little bows all over it pretending it doesn't exist. God's way is to expose it to the light and deal with it in a way that will ultimately yield the abundant life.

If we give the worst of ourselves to Him, He will bless it and give it back to us so that we can then share it with others. At times, He will even break it more so that it can be used in a greater way. Remember, brokenness is  openness. And, openness is a good thing!

If you've walked with God for any length of time at all, there will be a time when something or someone will break your heart. Somewhere inside of us there is a place that believes that this just shouldn't happen to children of God. C.S. Lewis said, "To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken."

And yet, loving others is the whole point. In Ann Voskamp's book, The Broken Way, she says, "I am what I love and I will love you like Jesus, through the strength of Jesus. I will love you when I'm not loved back. I will love you when I'm hurt and disappointed and betrayed and inconvenienced and rejected. I will simply love, no expectations, no conditions, no demands. Love is not always agreement with someone, but it is always sacrifice for someone."

She goes on to say that God calls us to the givenness of others. She states that our "Bad brokenness is broken by good brokenness", which is the giving out to others. C.S. Lewis said, "For in self-giving, if anywhere, we touch a rhythm not only of all creation, but of all being."

If we try to avoid suffering or mask it or attempt to comfort it, we miss out on the miracles and blessings that God intended for us. If we, instead, allow our suffering to propel us further into the heart of Jesus, we will be transformed. This is the transformation that brings freedom and healing to others.

As children of God, we are abundantly blessed. Simultaneously, for the greater good, God also allows us to be abundantly broken. Blessed and broken. For some of His children, this is the perpetual path He calls us to.

The promise He gives us if this is our path is that He will comfort us. The Greek word for comfort is parakaleo. Kaleo means to "call by name" and para means "near". It is ironically within our brokenness that we have the privilege to experience God and the comfort He brings in unprecedented ways. There are special blessings found along  broken path that are found in no other places. Our faith and surrender to Him are evidenced as we learn to trust Him in the process on our broken road.

This year, as we thank God for the abundance of our blessings, could we also thank Him for our brokenness too? His Light refracts through every broken place and yearns to touch other lives that are even more broken than our own. What if we intentionally seek out others who are hurting to show them the love of Christ? This is how we live the abundant  life in the midst of a broken path.

We are living in a season where God is calling us to be bolder and more intentional. No excuses. No hindrances- not even our own brokenness. We are a people who are abundantly blessed even if we are also abundantly broken. All brokenness will never fully be alleviated until we go home to be with Jesus. In the interim, may we be moved with compassion the way that Jesus is to find others along our path who are also blessed and broken. It is worth the risk!

                                        HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!


"By believing against all odds and loving against all odds, that is how we are to let Jesus show in the world and transform the world."
                                                    Frederick Buechner