Brokenness
In a previous post, “Didn’t See That Before,” I touched on the difference between working for God and allowing God to work through us – emphasis on him, big time! It’s all of his work done through us, a thought I can never seem to get over. The question then is what will it take for our lives to be so open that his life in us will spill out to those outside? It begins with brokenness – the true humility that comes from seeing all that I am in light of all that God is. Isaiah became broken when he saw himself in the full light of God’s blinding holiness – Isaiah 6:5: “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” (NIV)
Phillips Brooks writes: “The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you’re smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatness is.” True humility is never developed by thinking ourselves down. It comes by bringing all our goodness, all our talents, all our accomplishments against the nature of God. In that comparison and contrast, our confidence in self and our pride in our abilities shrink.
And the cool thing is that God pays special attention to the broken – Isaiah 66:2: Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the LORD. “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word. (NIV)
Nothing is more fundamental to knowing God, enjoying God, experiencing God’s power, and being used for God’s purposes than this crucial commodity called brokenness. C.S. Lewis noted that our problem isn’t trusting God; it’s trusting in God only. God wants to work through us, but he has to set the “us” aside first!
