“Blessed are the cracked and broken, for it is they who are filled with God’s grace.”
If there is one thing I have learned in my 45 years of life, it is that everyone is wounded in some way, shape or form. There simply are no ‘perfect’ people in the world. In fact, I’ve learned those who project a greater sense of accomplishment, or an “I’ve already arrived” mentality, are in fact the ones who are the farthest away from the very perfection of which they speak (especially among Jesus followers and people of all faiths).
But who wants to be “perfect” anyway? Honestly, I don’t. And as a Jesus follower I am reminded by the comforting truth that Jesus came for the sick and screwed up anyway, not the pious or perfect.
In truth, it is only through the cracks and woundeness of our lives that the profound mystery of God’s Grace can enter into our hearts and bring tender healing. For in our myth of perfection and achievements, we lose the truth of the cracked by believing that we are already perfect and whole. In that ‘lie’ we become “sealed shut” and the elements of God’s abundant Grace have no opening with which to enter our hearts.
For grace enters our hearts by way of a wound.
We are a broken and imperfect people. And praise God for that! Yes, Jesus did say, “Be perfect as your Father is perfect.” But the word perfect there does not mean without flaw, error or blemish. In its original meaning, “perfect” means to be “mature, complete, and healthy.” And with this definition in mind, I truly hunger to be ‘perfect’ in Abba: growing in maturity; complete in Him; and striving to health and wholeness through the Spirit.
So we, who are broken, are called to a God Who enters us through the very brokenness we often run from and deny. It is the lovely mystery of God: that the Holy One enters the unholy. Or written another way, the God of Wholeness desires intimacy with us and enters us His Un–whole creation in tenderness and love.
God loves the broken and cracked among us! Can I get an “Amen” to that Truth!
And when I speak of the wounded and broken, I am speaking of all of us, but especially those who are wounded and vulnerable on the outside. I have said it before and will say it again; God does indeed have a preferential option for the poor, the broken and the oppressed, not because they are better or more loved, but precisely because they are more vulnerable. Truly, God loves all equally and perfectly. But those that are the most broken, those who cry out in their brokenness, are the ones who are the most open to God’s amazing and grace.
We who are broken know that we need Grace. Those who find themselves to be whole have no need of grace or forgiveness or healing…or even God for that matter.
In truth, without God’s grace and love, I am just another addict ‘jonesing’ for a high, chasing an illusion. But with the love of the Messiah poured out into my heart and soul, I am whole. And it is this truth – living between the Already and the Not Yet of wholeness – which I must embrace.
For as the scriptures say, “it is not longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” And the very wholeness/holiness of Christ fills my entire cracked and wounded being with divine love.
So my friends, blessed are the cracked and broken, for it is we who are filled with God’s grace.
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