How to Shatter Your Mirror of Brokenness and Find Real Freedom

Broken.

I could feel the wind deflating in me, like a falling helium balloon, slowly drifting to the ground.

Sleepless nights, teething, throwing a surprise party, a conference weekend. The days spun on. And the body is only so strong under the weight of our own carnality.

Crackling, crumbling, I smiled on the outside, but inside I could feel the need to pull myself together, while the multitiudes kept screaming, “Welcome, broken things. Embrace and camp and live there.”

But why does our society keep tredding water tirelessly in a an ocean…forgetting about our anchor?

And who knows, one person can only paddle so long, one life can only crumble so much?

Eventually pieces must have purpose, find their place, get glued together, or no pile of ashes will ever do effective work for His Kingdom.

He who calls us is able. Reconstructing, reconciling, redeeming us to wholeness and healing. So, we can do more than hold our hands open in emptiness. Dusty from our own insignificance.

poppies-field-1394711In Him we are able to rise, stand, use our hands and feet? 

Psalms 118:5, “In my anguish I cried out to the Lord and He answered by setting me free.”

And I know, as a soceity, our pain is like a magnet for people. Any heart-aching testimony, any down-on-your-luck story, any I-come-from-hard-places-and-am-broken journey…..

Gains hits and watches, draws those who resonate with the heart-broken defeat and anguish eckoing in their very own soul…

But why is it, the last part of verse five, is something our society misses?

Him.

When we cry out to Him, give Him our broken pieces, have we forgotten He doesn’t just leave us there, but answers by setting us free?

I climb up from my exhaustion, after a night of crying out, seeking God, longing for Him to rush in and repair the broken pieces of my story.

See, I don’t need someone to come and identify with me. I don’t need an earthly reflection to tell me to embrace my broken places.

Much of my life’s journey, my own broken pieces have looked me in the mirror, cried out to me in my sleep, taunted me with inadequacies and insignificances for days, months and even years.

In fact, my broken pieces have owned me, center stage, for far too long. My guess is, yours have too?

Yes, they have been too loud, too needy. Demanding time, attention, pain and feelings I did not have to give.

They have haunted and threatened, and promised me, “Broken is how I live and broken is how I stay”

Yet, scripture calls us to rise, breach the gap, build a wall from the destruction that lies outside the camp. It teaches us out of heart-ache and ashes…

And there is a victory most of us are missing, hesitant to recieve, are fearful to attain or walk in, because we’ve grown accustomed to and have unknowingly sewn in our brokeness…

And let’s face it, “brokenness” can sometimes get comfortable, justifying our immobility, excusing our inactivity can be used as a crutch for our apathy.

But, awaken church, God is calling us to more.

Like the prodical son, let’s stop rejecting the Father’s robe, sandals and ring He freely gives to us.poppy-underworld-ii-1455075

Let’s stop owning identities flawed, rebellous, hesitating coming to the feast inside the very own heart of the Father.

And yet, we have learned, wallowing with pigs, living wildly apart from the Father gets more media attention and sells more books, than wholeness, called, complete freedom. 

Jesus died on the cross, broken, poured out…but friends, He didn’t stay there?

Down-trot, continually hanging from our crosses, why do we think somehow God is glorified in our unreconciled, unredeemed, unrestored broken-ness and ashes?

Isn’t He the God of the resurrection?

Aren’t we called, “The Bride of Christ”. Didn’t He rise, walk, to offer us His Spirit; fullness of life, freedom, and hope for all of eternity?

This Lent many takes weeks mourning and grieve, stepping into the fullness of a God who took upon Him the stripes that we never bore, the scars we might otherwise have endured…

Recognizing the crown of thorns that left blood running down His head…

But my guess is, many will of you will spend most of this year continuing to crucify YOU? With words, lies, lashing saying, “You are not good enough”, “Your scars are too big for God to use you”…

You will stay on the cross missing His resurrection in US.

Yes, most of you already know your desperate state without God.

But what about the freedom He holds out to us? Have we taken that great prize? Have we stepped into a life with The Pearl of Great Price with hope and expectation?

Do we understand our God came not just to die, but to rise and free us?

“I cried out in my anguist and He answered….by setting me free.”

poppies-1369329Today, I personally choose to rise in that victory, shift my mind outward, pick up my phone, and invite others into this world where God is bigger than my brokenness.

Shattering the lie that says, “I need rest”, or “I should just hold some package of all my broken things and cling to it until I die.”

No, Martin Luther calls it the “Great Exchange” where our sins are no longer ours, and His righteousness is no longer just His.

We hand Him our brokenness and He replaces it with the wholeness of all He is.

 

It’s a new day. And if you reading this, you are called to rise in so much more than some handful of ashes.

You are called to take up your “Yes'”, get up, and be the church as He asks of us…

Jesus death paid for our life abundant. His death wasn’t just some ticket to drag us across the finish line.

Can’t you just imagine a multitude dancing into heaven? All rejoicing, all celebrating the freedom brought to many HERE ON EARTH…now because of His righteousness?

Verse 6 in Psalms 118 says…the part after the anguish…the verse after the set-free portion…“The Lord is with me, I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

 

This Easter, I challenge you to look upward. Strip off the sackcloth, shift your eyes upward, and draw people inward to a gospel that is bold and fearless, faith-filled, and redemptive.

 

There is victory in His blood. There is grace and favor, and healing and redemption in His love.

Where are you walking in brokenness? Where have you yet to exchange the staring pieces of broken glass taunting you in the mirror?

Won’t you give him your ashes and exchange them for beauty?

Let’s rise church. God has work for us to do.

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10 Comments

  1. Jen, I love the words of Psalm 18 in The Message, concerning giving Him all of our broken pieces:

    God made my life complete
    when I placed all the pieces before him.
    When I got my act together,
    he gave me a fresh start.
    Now I’m alert to God’s ways;
    I don’t take God for granted.
    Every day I review the ways he works;
    I try not to miss a trick.
    I feel put back together,
    and I’m watching my step.
    God rewrote the text of my life
    when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes

    That passage was a gift from God to me at a very broken time in my life.

    May we give Him ALL our brokenness, for only He can make us whole.

    Love you. xx

  2. Wow, Jen, this is so beautiful. Tearing up as I sit here and read these beautifully poured-out words. Thank you. Happy Easter. ((Hug))

    1. As I read this quote, I am reminded of how many times I am preachin’ to my self, as I write words in this space! haha Thanks for that much needed quote today, Karrilee!

  3. Amen! Sometimes we cling to our despair and brokenness because it is familiar and we can’t see ourselves having an identity beyond it. But we have to step out in faith and embrace being made NEW in Jesus!

    1. As I read your words, Anita, I am reminded of an old, well-worn pair of jeans I have. They are faded almost white, have recently gotten a huge whole in the knee (And not the cool looking kind) & are pretty old and ragged. YET, I still love to wear them. They just feel just right; old, familiar and comfortable.

      I imagine this must be like what our unredeemed selves must feel like. Familiar. Comfortable. Easy to slide on and keep on all day.

      And yet, He redeems us by grace, He has given us a new name, new identity…the old has passed away, and we are called to walk free from sin and stains, as new creations! The fit is perfect, and His righteousness? Ideal in every way.

      So, why do I keep my useless, worn out jeans? It’s time to embrace the new! Off to the clothing-recycle bin I go….

      (Thanks for stirring that thought in me today)

  4. Jen, I absolutely loved this post! You are speaking my language, girl!
    I’m so happy you chose to linkup at #destinationInspiration, this week. I’m proud to feature your post @betheeinspired tomorrow. 🙂

    Your words truly inspire me! Thank you for sharing your heart. <3

  5. Beautiful post! Reminds me of Gungor music’s song “Beautiful Things.” God makes beautiful things out of dust, out of us. Also have you heard of the Japanese art form kintsugi? Kintsugi takes a broken object, pieces it back together, and puts gold lacquer over the broken parts. It tells us the history of an object rather than hiding it. I love thinking of us all as God’s beloved kintsugi. Blessed to be your neighbor over at the Ra Ra linkup this week.

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