Heart Tracks - Broken And Blessed

"He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then He broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, 'This is My body, which is given for you. Do this to remember Me.' " Luke 22:19

For most of us, when we think of the blessed life, we think of comfort, safety, the absence of heartache, and a great deal of what we define as happiness. The thought of brokenness leading to blessedness is alien to most of us here in the west. Yet Christ, by the example of His own life, showed the way to a life of true blessedness. He shows it still.

Little if any of our ideas about the blessed life include any concept of brokenness. In truth, we flee from any form of it, and so, we remain in all of our ways, unbroken. We hate the idea of suffering, and seek to avoid it at every turn. If it should enter into our lives at some point and way, our immediate response is to ask Him to get us out of it, and if He doesn't quickly do that, we seek our own means of deliverance from it. We want pain free lives. We don't see any value in pain of any kind. In those places where everything around us may be broken, we ourselves can remain unbroken. The fruit then, of an unbroken life in the midst of these broken places is usually bitterness, anger, unforgiveness....and a blaming of God for all of it. We know that Christ suffered for us, but we think that the suffering should have ended with Him. Our part is to enjoy all the fruit of His suffering, not be partakers of it.

Writer and speaker Ann Voskamp said we should not be afraid of the broken places or seek to escape them, because it is in these places that He can bring us resurrection life. This is the blessing of brokenness. The fullness, the abundance of His resurrection life in us. And then through us. Jesus first broke, and then blessed the bread. Then He gave that bread out. This is His desire for what your life and mine should be. He said that many are called, but few are chosen. Many hear the call to come to Him, and they do. But few choose to enter into the "fellowship of His sufferings." We stop at being a people called out, but we do not care to be "called into" the fullness of His life. That call will lead us into His brokenness, which, despite all our fears to the contrary, will also lead to the life of blessedness. Blessedness that does not stop with the meeting of all our self-centered desires, but with that of being broken bread and poured out water to a world and people in desperate need of such.

The broken places of life will come to all of us. How we respond to them will define whether our lives really fit into His definition of blessedness. Voskamp says that instead of demanding of Him an explanation for these sufferings, as most do, we must allow Him to enter into them with us. To experience Him in them. When the broken places come to you, what is it that you'll desire? An explanation from Him, or an experience in Him? Only one leads to the life of real blessedness.

Blessings,
Pastor O