The world is broken.

Broken.

A friend mentioned that his close friend died yesterday.  There was a torrent of sympathetic responses, mine among them.  Then, as the torrent subsided, he added one fact:  She had been killed by her husband—shot three times.

Broken.

In Arizona this week, a mother drowned her two-year-old twin sons and tried to drown another boy, because she thinks no one loves them—or her.  This happened the same week a court case began in California to try a mother who also drowned her son.  That woman says she acted out of love—to protect the boy from a horrible life.

Broken.

The list could go on for page after page—people of one religion killing people of other religions, folks of one race killing and torturing folks of another race,  ethnic groups with power abusing others without power—There seems no end of examples.

Closer to home, we live in a society of brokenness.  Broken families, broken friendships, broken children, broken health, broken promises, broken computer programs—even broken pencils.

All broken.

To the minutest detail, all of creation is susceptible to the brokenness inherent in every part.  The Preacher, in the Old Testament, added his endorsement when he told us that all is useless.  

Broken and useless.

I will admit it.  I am overwhelmed by the broken world in which we live.  I suspect, when you take time to consider it, you are as overwhelmed as I.

And then I realize we too are broken.  Overwhelmed and battered, as is all the world, our brokenness cries out for someone who can set things right.

And it turns out there is Someone who has already done the deed.  We simply have to put ourselves in His hands.  They are, after all, the hands of a Creator—a Potter who knows His craft, and His material. (Jeremiah 18:3,4)

He knows that we are dust.  He knows that we shatter too easily.  And, He already knows what the vessel we will one day become is to look like.

He already knows what the vessel we will one day become is to look like. Share on X

From the broken shards, a thing of beauty.  Or perhaps simply, a thing of usefulness.  I think that might be better.

Broken, made useful.  Efficient. Filled with purpose.

In a broken world, we can serve His purpose.

May we be no longer broken.  That was the way we came to Him.  Not the condition in which we are to leave His wheel and kiln.

Useful.

In a still-broken world.

 

 

 

 

All of God’s people are ordinary people who have been made extraordinary by the purpose He has given them.
(Oswald Chambers ~ Scottish evangelist/teacher ~ 1874-1917)

 

 

 

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
(Psalm 34:18 ~ NIV)

 

 

© Paul Phillips. He’s Taken Leave. 2015. All Rights Reserved.