Broken But Made Whole
I’m broken.
Sin has left me scared, wounded, broken, and limping through life. Disease and illness has left me wondering if I can endure and make it through to the other side of eternity. The questions of life are insurmountable and the discoveries of the soul are altogether endless. And while there are many things in life that are unknown to me, there is a stillness of God’s love and a peaceful embrace of God’s Spirit that is indescribable.
For many years now, I’ve said to myself: “I’m a real man with real problems, but I know a real God with real solutions.” You see, great leaders learn how to lead with a limp. Some of the most influential people I know are leaders who’ve been through the fire. They believe with certainty in their heart what God said through the prophet Isaiah: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze” (Isaiah 43:2).
Here’s what great leaders learn: life happens to each of us, but what you do with what you’ve been given determines the direction you will go. In one of Jesus’ greatest sermons, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “The sun rises on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). In other words, it really doesn’t matter what happens to you; what matters is what God will do through you.
Life will hurt you. People will wound you. Circumstances will overwhelm you. And situations that are out of your control will give you ample reason to quit the game of life. But there is one thing that makes a great leader, a great leader - one thing that creates an urgency that leverages the obstacle for the opportunity. And that one thing is knowing that God is with you and will redeem everything you go through for the glory of his name. The Apostle Paul echoes this truth when he says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Isaiah states the reason why the troubles of life will not consume you: “For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior...”(Isaiah 43:3a). If you are going to get through to the other side, don’t forget that the God who redeemed you is the same God who is with you. No matter what you experience in this life, Jesus promises to be with you.
“I’m a real man with real problems, but I know a real God with real solutions.”
I’ll never forget my first year as an ordained pastor. I was serving an elderly congregation, which meant that I spent a large amount of my time presiding at funerals. (In fact, over the course of three years, I presided at thirty-eight funerals.) But, I almost didn’t make it through my first Easter. From March to April that year, I had one funeral after another, totaling nine in eight weeks. The waters of dissipation came over me so strong that I didn’t think I was going to make it through.
After about the third funeral or so, I picked up the phone and called a friend who served a church in Texas. He was a veteran pastor who was gracious and willing to serve me as my friend and mentor. By the end of the day, he had sent me some of his previous sermons that he had preached during another Holy Week and some materials to get me through. If it wasn’t for his kindness, I probably would’ve sunk.
Here’s what I’ve learned: when the waters rise, when the difficulty increases, when the fiery coals are burning beneath your feet, Jesus is not far away. He’s right there in the fire with you and he’ll send you the right person at the right time to provide the right thing that you need.
It’s okay to not be okay. You don’t have to be okay because Jesus is okay. You don’t have to pretend to have it all together because of the position that you hold. The One who holds you in the palm of his hand is even greater. You don’t have to be ashamed of admitting that you’re weak because Jesus will say to you what he said to the Apostle Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
I wonder if the church has become powerless and void of influencing our communities for Christ because we have opted to believe that to come to church we first must have ourselves polished and put together. For way too long we have taught that it’s more important for people to believe than it is to belong. We have demonstrated through our actions that it’s more important to behave like us than it is to belong with us.
If the church wants to witness the power of God transform lives for the glory of God, then we must begin by confessing that we all are broken and that we all need Jesus. We need Jesus to heal our broken lives and to put the broken pieces of our shattered hearts back together again. We need Jesus to touch our wounds and to restore what the enemy has stolen. We need Jesus to overcome our inadequacies, imperfections, and idiosyncrasies and to conquer the power of our sin, so that we might be placed back into a right relationship with our Creator where we are forgiven and set free.
Here’s the bottom line: we all need Jesus. The old hymn, I Need Thee Every Hour, by Robert Lowry (1872) says it well:
Verse 1:
I need Thee ev'ry hour,
Most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine
Can peace afford.
Verse 2:
I need Thee ev'ry hour,
Stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their pow’r
When Thou art nigh.
Verse 3:
I need Thee ev'ry hour,
In joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide,
Or life is vain.
Refrain:
I need Thee, oh, I need Thee;
Ev'ry hour I need Thee;
Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee.
Broken people need Jesus today, tomorrow, and every day until Jesus takes us home to be with him forever.