“Broken people have sharp edges and you will get hurt when you are trying to touch them.”
Ain’t that the truth? And this thing is…we are all broken…every single one of us. Think you’ve arrived? Nope, you’re broken. Think that job/status/material possession/spouse/baby/(or insert idol here) makes you an instant grown-up? Nope, you’re broken, too. “Ah, but I’m in ministry!” you say. Okay….so you’re the probably the most broken out of all of us. Not one of us has arrived, not one…like a bunch of broken shards jabbing into each other…so are our hearts if we don’t take the time to heal them.
Everywhere we go, we encounter brokenness. And those broken “shards” will tear us apart. Being a child of God does not make us immune to life. Having an anointing or calling on our lives does not excuse us from experiencing some really ugly things in this world. After all, we live in it. Yes, we are citizens of heaven, but we live in world that is ruled by the enemy (Eph. 2:2). But as Christians, we are called to break that atmosphere, not cower under it. We are called to meet the broken (with discernment) where they are and help lift them up to a place they can breathe in Christ. Not always easy either…the very fact that this is our job will make us targets of the enemy. And we will sometimes experience it ten times worse than because he knows just what buttons to push, he knows how to tear us down, he knows how to distract us to the point of complete exhaustion that we are no good to ourselves, let alone anyone else. That’s his goal…wound the saints to make us less effective.
I think it was Tony Evans on Moody the other day who said the devil refuses to acknowledge that he’s been defeated. That’s why he’s such a pain in the ass. And make NO mistake…he HAS been defeated! We can’t see it now b/c the prophecy of the end times has not yet been completely fulfilled, although we are WELL on our way to that time. And we will see the full extent of that when Christ returns. How can he already be defeated if the prophecy has not yet been fulfilled?…because it is written…and God is not bound by time…He created time for us. God speaks and it is done (Lam. 3:3) outside of time.
How do we stay above it?…And what exactly is it?
We can see the obvious, right? See someone crying…there’s a hurting person right there. And if the Holy Spirit leads, we move into action.
But what does brokenness look like when it’s not so obvious?
Easy..that person who is trying desperately to tear your reputation apart? Twist your words? Lie on you? Blame you for things they did themselves? That’s brokenness. That person thinks so little of themselves that they believe that in order to gain a place for themselves, they have to tear you down first to do it. Always motivated by fear.
…That person who insists on being an absolute pain in your you know what…usually after you’ve helped them…plays “dumb” because they don’t want to take responsibility or wants to have a scapegoat should something come back on them…asks questions they know very well they could answer themselves, but don’t want the responsibility of making a decision should it be incorrect. Then it’s, “Well, (insert person here) told me blah, blah, blah…” and that’s pretty much what it sounds like! A bunch of nonsense!…that’s brokenness…a chaotic or victim mentality spirit who can’t manage themselves but wants to manage you into their own responsibilities…..Even more fun…Ever have a fellow “Christian” do that? And you’re just looking at them like, “seriously??”. How do you combat a manipulative person who actually knows what they are doing? Truth won’t matter to them because they already know it! They just refuse to acknowledge it. They know what they’re doing is wrong and they don’t care….Again fear…somewhere along the line, they were hurt most likely by another controlling dominant person…and they learned that in order to protect themselves, they think they need to be controlling and dominant themselves.
……Or the opposite…that person who was given more power than they are mature enough to handle who tells others to ignore you because you basically don’t know what you’re doing and only go to them?…again more fear, more brokenness…that person probably had someone do that very thing to them, but instead of learning from the pain it caused in their own hearts, they repeat the cycle to people they deem underneath them. Because they are afraid that their “power” will be taken from them if they don’t assert themselves. But when we truly know God, we know that He lifts us up in due time. And what He ordains (read: not us,) no one can take from us, but ourselves…all we need to do is wait on Him. In fact, the harder we try for self-promotion and maybe even attain a little success, the more susceptible we are for it to be taken from us…because we can’t sustain ourselves…God can’t bless something that He was completely left out of.
…and perhaps the hardest…the person you’ve poured into out of a genuine heart who rejects you over and over again because they’ve never experienced a genuine heart before…ouch. This type of brokenness hurts the worst…because, Frankly, my dear…we give a darn!
There can be a million and one reasons someone rejects you when you’ve done nothing to hurt them.
– they think they don’t deserve it
– they are hurting
– they have outside worldly influences subtly planting doubt in their minds…others can see you as a threat because the Truth in you reveals their own motives…or simply they want complete access to that person and don’t want to share that access with anyone else…so they make fun or make it seem like being friends with you is the worst idea in the world…but my question is…what are they bringing to the table for that person? hmmm
– they don’t trust God, so they subconsciously don’t trust you either
It’s been said before and it deems mention again…hurting people hurt people.
Why is this so hard to let go of?…because we want to “fix” it…we want to make it “right”…we see value…we see promise…we run ahead of God when He may be telling us to wait.
Maybe we aren’t trusting Him either.
Sometimes the best thing we can do is sit back and wait for Him.
Those times when we’ve been wronged…God will bring it to light..even if it’s never in the place it happened. If we stay true to Him, He will bless us for what we’ve walked through even if it’s in a totally different context. We want to see vindication right away…we want to see the other person “pay” for what they’ve done to us…and make no mistake…someday they will…we all will…for God says that on the judgment day, we will give an account for every idle word that we spoke (Matt. 12:36)….but that can’t be our heart…we can’t be looking forward to that day or finding satisfaction in the punishment of someone who has wronged us…if we do, we’re no better. We need to ask God to give us the eyes of Jesus to see our enemies….no that doesn’t mean putting on big fake smiles and making sure we acknowledge them everyday…sometimes it means an inward heart posture…a forgiveness in the heart and an understanding that that person is hurting or has been hurt to be acting that way. That doesn’t mean we align ourselves to be abused over an over. Wisdom would not put us back in a place to be taken advantage of as an outward expression of forgiveness. No, no, no…we can forgive others from a distance and still be in the will of God.
The times we want to help, but can’t. We want to be there, but are continuously pushed away for whatever reason…God will heal and He will restore…in whatever way He knows is best for us and will bring Him the most glory. In the meantime, we can work on our own hearts to be ready for where He takes us. The Japanese have an art form called Kintsukuroi where they take broken pottery and put it back together with gold..so the brokenness actually makes the piece more beautiful once it is repaired….so God does with us…He takes our broken pieces and heals with the Gold of His Love…all He asks is that we be willing to let Him.
…rest, Beloved.
Restoration Song 