Broken Beyond Repair?

Have you ever been overwhelmed by a profound sense of being broken?  I'm not speaking of kind of broken spoken of by David in Psalm 51:17, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."  I mean do you ever feel like you are damaged goods.  Do you look at the shards of your life, and find them overwhelming.

While sitting in a meeting tonight, it hit me tonight.  For a brief and intensely uncomfortable moment, I felt broken beyond repair.  It felt like I was only fit for the garbage pile.  I felt childhood wounds burst open with a pus-like flow of negative emotions.  Memories cauterized by time were ripped open, scars, long healed, were opened anew as well.  In that moment, I felt like a shattered vase.

The truth is we are all broken.  You may not feel it, but you are.  The whole human race is in ruins.  Sin has ruined our fair race, and enslaved us to brokenness.  As Paul states, "We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).  We are all broken, and are only fit for destruction.

However, destruction is not the desire of God's heart.  Peter states, "the Lord . . . is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance"  (2 Pet. 3:9, ESV).  Even though we should receive death, because of the sin in our lives, God in his grace welcomes us to come to him through Jesus Christ the Son (see Rom. 6:23).  As we reflect on the brokenness sin has inflicted in our lives, it is easy to say with Paul, "Wretched man that I am! Who will save me from this body of death?" (Rom 7:24, ESV).

If we will cry out in earnestness with Paul we can share in his consolation: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!  So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.  There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 7:25-8:1, ESV).

If you feel broken beyond repair, if your emotional scars feel ragged and fresh, if you yearn to put the pieces back together, then reach out, in faith, and cling to Christ Jesus.  Are you ready to place yourself in his hands and allow him to mend your brokenness?  He is able to transform the shards of your life into a work of beauty.