Broken for You

“Broken in my heart…then offered to the Father…” These were the words that highlighted her mind as she slowly awakened. Correlations came as she pondered why Christ’s body was broken for mankind. The ultimate offering of self for the uplifting, the nourishing, the restoration of life for others. What exactly did those words mean personally for her? Was this the answer to the question that had been plaguing her mind for years…”How do you live?”

Seeking to know the Biblical Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the woman and her husband had been believers for years, both just two regular humans doing their best to make sense of their own personal hurts while learning the realities of what loving others required. Marriage, blended family, raising their children, juggling jobs, trying to defend their little brood from the onslaughts of a world that would take them down…they were like most other people on the planet trying to make sense of it all. Finding meaning, purpose, value, giving back into the messy world that was so rife with hurt and need. It was overwhelming. Perhaps the whole world was silently shouting, “How do you live?”

Life challenges kept testing their beliefs of how to live. Deaths of personal expectations, hurtful relationships, dashed dreams, and cultural strife had sucked enthusiasm from their bones…and yet, because of the historic Jesus who overcame, who defeated ALL those things, they had hope. Jesus’s words, old words of the Bible, were timeless living words that never lost their ability to infuse life back into their bones…and their souls. Words whispered in an ongoing conversation with their reborn spirits through the Holy Spirit. Life was much more than this temporal world.

“Broken for you.” Christ’s whole earthly life of teaching, serving, demonstrating the love of the Father to a confused, self-centered world seemed to end with His final sacrifice…His body broken, hanging on a cross for the remission of sins of the sick, messy, dying world. Until three days later…when He appeared to not only His disciples, but hundreds and hundreds of witnesses. “He is alive!” was the testament of those who saw Him after His resurrection. “He is alive!” is the testament of those who know Him through His Holy Spirit dwelling in them. They, His followers, carry on the work of reconciliation…the restoration of relationship with God the Father reaching out to all creation who have rejected Him. No wonder Christ Jesus was known as the Man of Sorrows. He carried all of the world’s woes, each person’s; and dare I say, the grief of the Father?

Sharing in Christ’s sufferings is part of the experience of living as a Christ-follower. Should one not be surprised when unexpected turmoil or grief sideswipes an otherwise enjoyable day? It does whether or not one believes in the Savior. Yet, when one realizes the goodness that comes through brokenness, it is then the “joy in momentary light afflictions” from an eternal perspective begins to make sense. Personal sorrows and hurts can be transformed into a glorious act of worship as one offers up their confusion and pain with supplication, reaching in trust to the love of the Father, the One who bandages our knees, dries our tears, holds us close as we sob into His arms, and reveals to us the lessons of true healing that only He can reveal. Broken in heart…offered back to the Father. Yes, this is how one may live.

Happily, not all of life brings sorrowed days. God’s beautiful creation shouts encouragement and uplift, trumpets joy and hope. Light and new life blaze with each day’s promise. Rainbows and miracles bring wonder. And we have the gift of laughter. Jesus also has a great sense of humor! He loves to laugh, and welcomes our joys, emotions, and experiences to be shared with Him. He knows them anyway…”for in Him we live and move and have our being!” Laughing with Jesus! Can you imagine sounds of laughter echoing across the expanses of heaven? JOY! Through His Holy Spirit we may laugh with Him now, commune with Him now, know Him personally now. The Man of Sorrows has defeated all that would defeat us! Yes! He is alive! In Him is how to live!

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LORD, thank You for Your great love for us. Our words cannot express the depth of gratitude, nor our hearts fully embrace Your sacrifice to redeem us from the wages of sin, from death. Thank you for walking this earth to show us with your Life how to love and live. Thank You that no matter the reasons for our brokenness, all can be transformed as You heal us and make things new. Take my brokenness. Teach me the lessons that will help me grow. May all be an offering for Your glory. In Jesus’ name, and for His sake, Amen.

John 14:6 NKJV “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Luke 22:19 ‘And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”’

2 Corinthians 4:16-17 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory”

Acts 17:28 “for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’”

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”