Viewpoint

We all know what it means and how it feels to be broken &emdash; to be shattered &emdash; to feel as if our world has come apart. Empty. Our soul a void that cannot be filled, a sorrow beyond comfort, a wound that ever bleeds. However, most Christians do not understand what the Bible teaches about brokenness. It is nearly impossible to think of it as having anything to do with blessing. Therefore, the last thing they want in life is to experience it.

In a time when we hear so much about Christian prosperity ( a largely American concept) about God's healing our illness, about God's supposed great desire for our happiness, the message of brokenness does not play well or appeal to many people. In point of fact, it appeals only to those who want God's best and not their own. They are aware that those two elements are not, by nature, the same thing.

These realize that while brokenness in and of itself is not something that can be sought, but is the work of Our Sovereign, neither is it something we should seek to avoid. It will and must happen.

As we learn from the prophet Jeremiah, God is the potter, we the clay. It is an oft repeated but little remembered analogy. The Father is molding and shaping us upon His wheel. And, with our clay-like cooperation, He will make us into a vessel to His honor. Our cooperation, however, is not a sure thing. There are times when we are no longer malleable. Perhaps a bubble will emerge in the clay as it is worked on the wheel. That "bubble" could be a sin or it could be self-will in an area of our lives which we refuse to surrender to His hand. If He were to continue turning the clay it would result in a misshapen vessel. He will not produce such a piece. He is reputed to be an expert potter and will maintain that reputation in honor. He is left with no choice but to stop His wheel, press down the clay and begin again.

This pressing down is like God's breaking work and when it begins, it shocks painfully. We, unlike our omnipresent Father, are often unaware of our own inward sins and the flaws in our character that stand between who we are and who He has destined us to be. Consequently, when the breaking begins, we are stunned. We wonder where He is and abandon the trust we once had in His love and wisdom.

We see only the chaos of being broken. We feel the pain, the confusion and disorientation as we are tossed about in a tempest of doubts about our relationship to God. Even questioning whether He is there at all!

But take heart. While the experience is seemingly shredding our souls, from God's point of view, it is a systematic, orderly process. God never loses control of the breaking process. It is an integral part of His craft. We suffer from the affliction of not knowing ourselves and what parts of us are hindering His work upon our lives. Even in our most pliable and compliant state, we, in many ways, are unable to see our own dark side. But make no mistake, He knows precisely what those parts are and where He must apply pressure and how great that pressure must be. He is, after all, an expert.

Just as a potter who, upon finding a flaw or a "bubble" in his clay, doesn't seek to destroy the clay or even to cast it away. He kneads it further with even greater investment of His time and attention and continues to work it anew - to reshape it into a vessel of honor. He cannot in His integrity produce anything less than that.

As great as the pain may be, His purpose is not to destroy us but to bring us to wholeness, maturity and a useful place in His kingdom. That is the greater part of being broken. Usefulness. It is true that while our old nature is overcome by the breaking process, it is equally true that unknown talents are revealed. A gift for His work that would never have been known without His breaking us. Verily, He is and always has worked in all things for the good of those that love Him. It is for us to let the Potter have His way with us.

Whether for the purpose of cleansing us of secret faults or mining out of our souls a hidden gift or talent, being broken is painful and difficult. Nevertheless, it is good. It is not something to be avoided at all cost. Rather, it is something to be faced with faith. Our endurance and our victory will come only in the keeping of the vow we made of total submission to Him in sincerity. God is not trying to break our spirit, but our will. The breaking will continue only so long as it takes for that to be accomplished and not a moment longer. For this cause, let us humble ourselves under His mighty hand and submit to Father Yahweh in times of brokenness, that He may exalt us in due time and we may be all that He has designed us to be.

"'Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message.' So I went to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the LORD came to me...'Can I not do with you as this potter does? ... Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand'" (Jeremiah 18:2-6).

--Joe Funari

Perspective

Much of our modern culture is expressed by the media of today. In fact, the media does an outstanding job of defining and determining our culture. The continuing success of our society and financial system depends almost totally on the media doing its job well. The cost of advertising is the cost of supporting the present culture. It is the cost of selling all of us on the myth of fulfillment.

Magazines, movies, radio and especially television create a fantasy world based on this myth of fulfillment. TV is so much easier than life. It is much easier to watch than to participate. It is easier to listen to music than to learn to play an instrument. We can never be as good as what we hear. Our lives can never be as exciting and glamorous and fun as the lives of those we watch. We make heroes out of people we have never met, or have only met through the media. And we are so disappointed when our heroes fail to live up to our standards (be they moral or fantasy). We are so grief-stricken when our heroes die young.

Fantasy has an almost narcotic effect. We want what we see. We think we will be fulfilled if we look like, act like, buy like those we see before us in the media all the time. Advertising-based entertainment cultivates thoughts of dissatisfaction. It tells us that we deserve better. And it tells us (falsely) exactly what to buy and how to act to attain all that we lack. We will never be funnier than the people on TV and the radio. We will never be more attractive than those whose faces and bodies are on magazine covers and in the movies. We will never be richer, or braver, or smarter, etc. as the media models and heroes of today. At least not in this life. But that sure doesn't stop us from trying.

As Christians, we need to be alert to the seductive powers of fantasy. In many ways the Christian media fosters the same fantasy as the entertainment media does. There is always one more book to read to make my life more fulfilled. There is always another conference to go to, another seminar to attend, another experience to have to find Christian fulfillment. It is a myth. There is no promise that the fullness of all that I need and all that I really desire awaits anywhere on this earth. Fulfillment is not promised to me in this life. Joy is. Peace is. Tribulation and testing are. I am told that I can learn to be content. But fulfillment must wait until Christ returns and gives it to me.

God does promise us that bad things can actually be changed for the better in our lives and ultimately even be redemptive. No fantasy in Christianity, only reality. My community of fellow believers is the reality of my spiritual life now. It is the only place I can experience even a little fulfillment, a small taste and promise of what heaven will be like.

&emdash;Larry Urbaniak

Other Items

"Yet wonder of wonders, He makes us to be co-laborers together with Him" (I Cor. 3:9) Fourteen new laborers were added to our family of Christ through baptism, thirteen at the BCC and one at CBC. Let's remember them in our prayers and by cards or notes of encouragement this year.

Gina Alberici
Roseanna Baker
Christina Brown
Joseph Brown
Chris DeJesus
Esther Elliott
Samuel Knapp
Geralyn Iannaccone
Jamon Robinson
Robert Schieder
Chelsea Schopf
Tim Schopf
Autumn Skorup
Jonathan Wojick

Roy's Reflections

I had been driving the same 40-mile round trip on the strip of highway and expressway for over twenty years, going back and forth to Washburne Trade School. Prior to that, for over twelve years, I had a 65-mile round trip on the expressways and the Lake Shore Drive going back and forth to Senn H.S. During all that time, I can't remember one trip where there weren't some detours, accidents, snow or ice packed roads, construction, or sections of road filled with potholes. I couldn't believe how torn up these roadways were. I had resigned myself to the fact they never would be finished or smooth sailing. They were always under construction or in disrepair. The travel on these roads were and will always be full of surprises and hazards.

My life is much the same way. I haven't spent much time getting from one place to the other as the crow flies (in fact, I seldom even see any crows flying on my journeys). My path is much too winding. There are few straight lines and many roadblocks, detours, potholes, side streets, and unforeseen difficulties. But as I look at the journey traveled so far, I can see the steady progress of God's hand shaping me to be more than I was when I began my journey. Granted, it has been a series of starts and stops. Many of the best days I took two steps forward and one step back. I easily remember the mistakes and wrong turns I've made that needed correction. Yet God's Spirit has graciously kept working to make more of me.

Transformation hasn't been immediate or clean. But it's there, irrefutable. It's only when I look at the long haul that I realize God's handiwork in his flawed servant. Over the short haul, I see the difficulties, the pains, the failures, the insensitive moments, and the times I have disappointed more than I have delighted those I love. It seems much easier for me to see the ground I have yet to cover; than to see the progress God has already made in my life despite my blunders.

I believe that if you will pause a moment and look at your life, you may find you've traversed a similar journey. In a world of instant everything, character and maturity are won by God's Spirit and grace over time and over our stupidities, failures, mistakes, and sins. We don't like the detours or the potholes, but those are precisely the difficulties that God uses to craft us into something more. Our evil opponent would like to make us think no progress has been made, that our failures are circular and inescapable. He wants us to give up in despair with maturity always beyond our grasp. But incredibly, the God who "knit us together" in our mother's womb (Psalm 139:13-16) is the same God who is at work in every situation to bring us to an eternal good (Romans 8 :28-29). What he has begun in us, he is determined to finish (Philippians 1:6) until we share in the glory of his perfect Son (Romans 8:18; Philippians 3:20-21).

Satan would love to defeat us through discouragement. He would love to have us stay off the road and quit our life as a traveler. The allure of no more difficult travel, of no potholes and detours is tempting. But the biggest wrong turn we could make on our journey would be to quit making turns altogether and settle down where we find ourselves. While we may not be where we want to eventually be, that is what our journey is for. Ours is a journey of potholes and detours, but it is also a journey to Jesus.

Roy P. Boswell