Brokenness

 

Every year we are asked to share a devotion with our co-workers. It is such a blessing to listen to others but I am always so nervous when it is my turn. This year just as in years past I just simply needed to yield and get out of the way. I am also sharing my testimony at Teen MOPS this coming Tuesday and would ask that you keep me in your prayers so the girls there here my heart.

Tell me your story, show me your wounds.

And I’ll show you what love sees when love looks at you.

Hand me the pieces, broken and bruised.

And I’ll show you what love sees when love looks at you.

This song speaks to me; it speaks truth to my heart. A truth that so often can be crowded out by lies by the enemy, by the to do list, by weariness brought on by so many things of this world.

At one point in my life this truth was not present and now at a much different season of life after grace has allowed me to see this truth in myself I sadly enough often miss it in others. Brokenness in our lives can be glaring and blindness to truth is often the result, we miss seeing brokenness in the lives of others allowing  sin to be their headline or status.

What I see in others, what I see in myself is much different than what Jesus sees in us and others.

Ironically enough how often do I allow something as pure and good as the grace and forgiveness that Christ has shown me to cause self-righteous behavior that somehow puts me above others or puts glasses on me that sees the behavior and not the brokenness.

Brokenness comes in all forms at all ages, frankly if we are honest with ourselves we all have brokenness in our lives. We rest on truth and we trust that God is faithful. I pray daily for eyes that see what Jesus sees and know the truth of Genesis 50:20 to be true with my own brokenness: You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

God took the brokenness in my own life and uses it daily to teach me, it has given me a new vision and has restored me to a wholeness only found in Him.

Most times the vision of brokenness is heartbreaking, brokenness is never easy. It involves death, illness, injury, broken relationships, infertility, depression, abuse, addiction and much more. We are among a broken world but in Romans 5 I am reminded brokenness has purpose and hope.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith ,into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says He has made everything beautiful in its time, He has also set eternity in the hearts of men. Our hearts are designed for eternity. Gods’ ultimate plan in our creation was for us to spend eternity with Him. When we think of our own children we see a glimpse of that kind of love but the parent/child relationship here on earth can’t fully grasp the fullness of His love or his desire for us to come into a relationship with Him. 

When our God shaped hole in our heart is not filled with what it was purposed for, it becomes sick so to speak and like any part of us that is sick it hurts, it swells, it becomes harder with time to make well.

We are created by the healer of our hearts and when my heart was filled with abuse, addiction, sexual sin, anger and resentment. When I was convinced my insides were worst that my actions on the outside I know I looked much different to others.

My brokenness took the appearance to others of a young girl, dressed in a manner that revealed my need for the approval of others, believing my worth came from what I had and could get out of this world, my shame came from failed relationships, true love came from physical love and failure was crystal clear in my choices and then later drowned in a bottle of please help me forget.

Jesus saw my heart and literally fought His way in and slowly began to hold my hand on a path of healing. His love saw what others couldn’t see. PEOPLE, the body of Christ with His eyes embraced me, mentored me and saw what Jesus saw.

The end of the song says:

I see what I made in your mother's womb
I see the day I fell in love with you.
I see your tomorrows, nothing left to chance
I see My Father's fingerprints
I see your story, I see My name
Written on every beautiful page
You see the struggle, you see the shame
I see the reason I came
I came for your story, I came for your wounds
To show you what Love sees when I see you

I have been challenged many times to see through the sinfulness of life and into the brokenness of life. My own brokenness being my biggest obstacle.

Ask God to allow you to see others with His eyes, ask to be blinded by love and not allow sins to take you off guard. Look past the behavior and see the brokenness.

The Touch of the Master's Hand

'Twas battered and scarred,
And the auctioneer thought it
hardly worth his while
To waste his time on the old violin,
but he held it up with a smile.

"What am I bid, good people", he cried,
"Who starts the bidding for me?"
"One dollar, one dollar, Do I hear two?"
"Two dollars, who makes it three?"
"Three dollars once, three dollars twice, going for three,"

But, No,
From the room far back a gray bearded man
Came forward and picked up the bow,
Then wiping the dust from the old violin
And tightening up the strings,
He played a melody, pure and sweet
As sweet as the angel sings.

The music ceased and the auctioneer
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said "What now am I bid for this old violin?"
As he held it aloft with its' bow.

"One thousand, one thousand, Do I hear two?"
"Two thousand, Who makes it three?"
"Three thousand once, three thousand twice,
Going and gone", said he.

The audience cheered,
But some of them cried,
"We just don't understand."
"What changed its' worth?"
Swift came the reply.
"The Touch of the Masters Hand."

And many a man with life out of tune
All battered with bourbon and gin
Is auctioned cheap to a thoughtless crowd
Much like that old violin

A mess of pottage, a glass of wine,
A game and he travels on.
He is going once, he is going twice,
He is going and almost gone.

But the Master comes,
And the foolish crowd never can quite understand,
The worth of a soul and the change that is wrought
By the Touch of the Masters' Hand.

Myra Brooks Welch