Daily Meditation: "Cracks"
Tuesday, August 25, 2020
SCRIPTURE
“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” - Psalm 51:17
REFLECTION:
There isn’t anyone, not one of us, that isn’t in some way broken. That’s not a criticism, nor is it said without self-inclusion. I’m broken, too. I’ve got more cracks than a broken egg. Outward appearances may lend us to think that there are people who just have it all together, but I’ve had enough honest conversations in my office or over coffee through the years to know those outward appearances are just that: appearances. Don’t fall for those Facebook profiles that make it look like people have better, happier lives than you do. They don’t. All of us have our broken spaces, and all of us have our scars.
Those scars and spaces can come with a whole bevy of emotions: anger, shame, guilt, sadness, regret….you name it. And as I reflected yesterday, we can hold onto the grudges that can come along with the brokenness, directed at others or inward at our own shortcomings, and hold onto that negativity for years and years.
Yet, the truth of being broken is that we have the opportunity of being made whole again. Brokenness is part of what it is to be human. No one, not one of us, doesn’t have some cracks. It’s when we think we’re immune from the cracks, the things that cause them, and we presume to think that we’re better than we truly are, that we are being untrue to ourselves.
Admitting the brokenness and having a repentant heart about it, the psalmist tells us, is what we can offer to God and God does not despise it. God, in fact, delights in a repentant heart. Repentance means ending our journey in going one direction, the wrong direction, and instead turning ourselves onto a new path that leads us in a better direction. We can make those healthy turns onto new paths every day, cracks and all.
Don’t worry about your cracks. You’ll take them with you on your way. Put more energy into finding new and better paths to follow.
PRAYER
Gracious God, thank for loving me with all of my cracks and always calling me down better pathways that lead toward you.
Amen.
Peace,
Shawn