…….I graduated high school with a broken but repaired body. I had three knee surgeries with a cadaver ACL attached since mine was gone. I also finished high school with three concussions and an eyelid almost split open but glued back together. Blood vessels around my eye were ruptured from a head-butt that caused swelling the size of a softball. Just to name a few. I not only graduated with a diploma but also a repaired body. Ironically, amidst my body being broken, the Lord worked into my heart to show me that there was more broken than just my body parts. My life was broken. I attained my injuries and was repaired with a story to tell. We are broken in sin, Jesus made us new, and we have a story to tell. Growing up, not many people talked about brokenness and it was often covered up. Transparency was lived out as the absence of problems, not the revealing of brokenness. God wants us to be real about our brokenness so that He may receive glory through the testimony of the Gospel to the lost and broken.

Sinner but Saved

…….I have not been completely honest with you so far. Scripture tells us we are much more than merely broken. Scriptures says that apart from Jesus, we are dead (Ephesians 2:1, 5; Colossians 2:13). Sin causes us to be separated from God with no way to save ourselves. The punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:26). Jesus came to be born through a family line planned by God unable to be broken by man. Jesus lived the life we could not by leaving the law unbroken. Jesus died on the cross in our place without a single bone broken. All of this was accomplished so He would be the perfect sacrifice for our sins and for our right standing before God.

…….The reality of our sin is daunting when our eyes are opened by God to His holiness. We are broken off from the presence of God, but we are also repaired by the presence of God who came to Earth. Those who are born again and filled with the Spirit are those who are no longer broken. Sinners become saints by the plan of the Father, the work of the Son, and the sealing of the Spirit (Ephesians 1). Brokenness is still present and sin is still a battle, however, we have peace of salvation. No longer do we wonder what will happen after we die. We are restored to the family of God. Rest in knowing that you are saved and your brokenness will be repaired. Brokenness does not give proof of your eternal state, only your fallen state. The story you tell in your brokenness will tell people of your eternal state. Living as if you have no brokenness will tell others you have no answer. Living in disparity of brokenness will tell others you have not found an answer. Living with hope in brokenness will tell others you have something they need. Transparency in brokenness with an answer of hope introduces people to a Savior.

Transparency in Brokenness

…….There are two types of brokenness needing to be addressed. The first deals with our enslavement to sin. People will see our brokenness no matter how we attempt to cover it up. Our sinful nature is apparent and it is why there is brokenness to begin with. Before our salvation, we are enslaved to sin (Romans 6:20). Through the work of the cross, we are free from the enslavement of sin and equipped for growth in holiness. This brokenness is answered partly because we can overcome sin and can be more like Christ through the work of the Spirit. This task is called sanctification. It means we spend each day striving to be more like Jesus, through the help of the Spirit. He works in us to convict, teach, and equip. We are responsible for this process of riding sin and putting on holiness until we reach glorification. This will be the point in which we find ourselves in the physical presence of God and are made new. We will receive our glorified state with no more sin or brokenness. We have been given hope for our earthly, sinful state, and we are awaiting completion for our renewed, sinless, and repaired state.

…….Now that we have an answer for our sin we must move to the answer of our suffering. Everyone suffers. Suffering comes in the form of persecution, terminal illness, divorce, loss of job, childless, body failure, tragedy, and on and on. This may come upon us due to our sin or the sin of someone else. Either way, brokenness can be repaired. While your suffering may be life-long it is only momentary:

“Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

(2 Corinthians 4:13-18, emphasis mine)

The hope this brings to the world is that we are freed from the slavery of sin and we have hope that our suffering will end. Brokenness brings glory to God because God has promised an end to our brokenness.

…….I pray that you will find peace in your brokenness. I pray that if you are still searching for an answer to your brokenness that you would seek Jesus. I pray that if you have found the hope in Jesus in your brokenness that you would tell your story. Jesus died on the cross unbroken. He broke the chains of sin for His broken image bearers. In doing so He repaired the broken relationship we had with the Godhead. Brokenness teaches us that our Creator is also our Savior. The glory of God is found in the story we tell other broken people – that we have the answer for the disparity.