“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
Psalm 34:18-19
Everywhere you look in this moment, things are broken. It feels like the proverbial bull has entered the proverbial china shop. And that bull is lurking around corners ready to break the precious things in our lives that he hasn’t stumbled upon yet.
It’s everywhere. Maybe your family looks nothing like it did before. Or your job did not weather the pandemic and you’re not sure if the career you worked so hard to build is going to be revived. The isolation of this collective experience has left friend groups and extended family structures fractured. And when we tune in, the new shows us story after story of our communities coming apart at the seams with ugliness, hurt, and aggression that feel so hard and horrible.
Taking it all in, your heart is in pieces.
Walking through this world at this moment in history feels like the epitome of broken. And this much transparency into just how flawed we all are is not how most of us want to be seen. We work hard to clean everything up and present a nice, tidy life to the world. But in reality, that sort of nice and tidy don’t exist.
Coming to terms with this broken reality is one of the hardest parts of healing when we are walking through hurt. When we see the wreck of all that is shattered around us, it is easy and almost instinctive to look away. To avert our eyes. To fill our brokenness with other people or things or a full schedule. Anything to block the view of the mess, the hurt, and the broken pieces of ourselves.
Resist the temptation to look away.
Sit for a moment and let yourself acknowledge the broken you see. And the broken you feel.
Acknowledge that brokenness to God. Cry it out to Him. Tell Him about your sadness. And how angry you are. And just how confusing this all is. He is your good, good Father and He cares for you. His heart is broken for you. And He sees the breadth and depth of your loss, grief, and disappointment.
You are not invisible to Him. He cares about the small details of your life. And the big stuff, too.
We are not promised a life without the broken. The hurt and shattered you are living right now is intense. And it is hard.
But our Lord does not leave His hurt, shattered, and broken hearted children. He does not observe from afar. In fact, He does the opposite.
The God who made you is walking alongside you. Show Him where it hurts. Let Him carry you, and let Him tend to your broken heart.
He is faithful. He will deliver you.
