Brokenness: Much More Than A Fairy Tale

August 13, 2011

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king's horses, and all the king's men

Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again

We all remember the Humpty Dumpty riddle that our moms and grade school teachers taught us. Poor Humpty. Imagine being an egg, hanging out on a wall watching the hustle and bustle of the townspeople around you, then suddenly, you've fallen from the wall. You find yourself lying on the ground, shattered into hundreds of pieces. And what's worse -- no one can put you back together again.

Unfortunately this story isn't just found in storybooks. It's the story of so many that claim to know Christ as personal savior -- shattered into hundreds of pieces, with no one able to put them back together again.

People today are falling off the walls of the world and breaking into a million pieces. In No Perfect People Allowed: Creating A Come As You Are Culture In The Church, Pastor John Burke examines today's post-Christian culture and the methods needed to minister to it. In the following excerpt, he gives us a frightening peek into the world we live in today:

"If you are reaching the average person under age forty, more than likely, one out of every three women you interact with will have had an abortion. One or even two out of six women you talk to will have been sexually molested. More than six out of ten people you speak with will think living together before marriage is the wisest way to prevent divorce, and five out of those ten will have lived with someone. Most will have been sexually active, and the thought of waiting until marriage will sound totally foreign and will need explaining. Most men will have struggled with pornography or serious problems with lust. One in five to ten people will struggle with substance abuse. At least one in five and as high as two out of five people who come to your church will smoke. These are the people Christ came to seek and save."

The statistics are staggering. And unfortunately, they aren't confined to the unbelieving world around us. The Christian world is full of broken people. Our churches are packed with women scarred by sexual abuse, men addicted to pornography, people addicted to food, sex and/or alcohol, singles living together, couples divorcing for unbiblical reasons and the list goes on and on.

Okay, so we know we've got a problem in the body of Christ. So what do we about it? Well, I'm no scientist. And that's a good thing, because my solution for brokenness is completely unscientific. In fact it's what you'd call an oxymoron. But here goes:

The solution to brokenness is brokenness.

I know that sounds ridiculous, but hang in there with me. When we're broken because of sin -- whether it's sin we've committed or sin that has been committed against us -- we need to be broken in spirit.

When the prophet Nathan rebuked King David for the sin of adultery with Bathsheba and conspiring to murder her husband, David fell on his face before His God to confess his sin and recommit his life to His King. In Psalm 51, David's song to the Lord speaks of his remorse and repentance before God. Psalm 51 is a song of a man broken by sin who solves his sin problem by confessing his sin, turning away from his sin and being broken by God.

"You do not delight in sacrifices, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." Psalm 51:16-17

Please don't live another day broken by the sins of your past and present. I'm a firm believer in seeking help from trained counselors. So by all means, seek help from a good Christian counselor and/or a Christian support group. Seek support and prayer from strong believers in your life. Spend time with God in His Word and in prayer. But most of all, allow the God of the universe to break you, so He can build you back up.

You can't possibly put yourself back together again. No person can put you back together again. But praise God, He can.

I'll close with a song by Darwin Hobbs, "Break Me." May these lyrics be our prayer today.