I remember when I was in college, there was a praise and worship song that was very popular at the time, you may know it... It went like this: "Brokenness, Brokenness is what I long for. Brokenness, Brokenness is what I need." I remember this song, though I haven't heard or sung it in some time, as being somewhat of a spark for the prayer lives of many Christians, myself included. Praying to be broken and humbled, which are good things to pray for, in my opinion.
Recently, however, I have heard a song on the radio, by a group called For King and Country, which makes the following statement: "I've got a busted heart." After hearing this song a few times, it really started to strike a cord with me and sparked my memory of the song mentioned above. Now, to many of you this might be simple semantics, but there are a lot of others out there, who like me, can see this difference in their heads and have a realization that they might not have had before.
So, let's compare:
BROKEN: For the sake of my own visualization, I am going to use the mental image of a ceramic bowl. Picture it with me - you have a bowl, and while you are washing it in the sink (because for some reason you bought a bowl that wasn't dishwasher safe, or you don't have a dishwasher...) the bowl slips from your hands and, as it hits the bottom of the sink it breaks into 3 or 4 pieces. This is a bowl that you have used everyday for the last 5 years for your morning cereal, and as you survey the damage, your heart begins to hurt because it meant so much to you. After all, it was a gift. In your investigation, you realize, that with a little bit of glue, you may be able to salvage this priceless dish. So, you begin to work and after a few hours of concentration (you know the kind with your tongue sticking out of the side of your mouth) and a few more hours of glue drying, you have in your hands something that resembles that original bowl. Sure, it will never be the same, and you may never forget what has happened to it, and will be extra careful when you use it the next time, but it is still similar in a lot of ways.
BUSTED: Now, let's take that same bowl, same history with it, and imagine that you are retrieving the bowl for breakfast from the top shelf. As you are reaching, grabbing for the bowl with your fore-finger and middle-finger, it tips off the shelf, and you see, almost in slow motion, the bowl crash to the hard kitchen floor and shatter into thousands of tiny pieces. Instantly, you realize that the damage is beyond repair - this bowl will never be able to exist the way it once did. Sure, it could be a bowl again, but the process of getting it there would be a completely daunting task, and you would have a totally new creation on your hands. This bowl will never, ever be the same.
Sure that is a drastic and somewhat unrealistic example, but I believe the principle still applies. You see, God has called us to be a "New Creation." 2 Corinthians 5:17 states that if we are "in Christ, the old has gone and the new has come." Don't forget about Romans 12:2 that talks about the renewing of the mind. I don't believe that we go through the good and the bad in our lives and have the moments we have, just so we can continue to be the same old bowl, or even "mostly" the same old bowl with some cracks and glue marks. I believe all of those things happen to help us become a completely new bowl, and that has really changed the way I look at a lot of life.
What about you, broken or busted?
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