We all know what it means and how it feels to be broken - to be shattered - to feel as if our world has come apart -- Empty. Our soul a void that cannot be filled, a sorrow beyond comfort, and 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) - God's healing our illness--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 some-thing that can be sought, but is the work of our Sovereign Lord, 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 2 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" (Jer.18:2-6).

J.Funari
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