Thursday, February 14, 2008

Brokenness

Last night in our men's class we talked about brokenness. I made the comment that God cannot REALLY use us until we are broken. We talked about how there are differing degrees of brokenness. For some, it may be as dramatic as Saul (Paul) on the road to Damascus. For others, as me at one point in my life -- it was an awakening to the wonder of God's grace. It made me aware of my sin and broke my heart.

The church should be a magnet for the broken. However that is not always the case, as the following story illustrates:

Fred Smith loves to ask people this question: "If you were caught for drunken driving, and the headlines in your local newspaper that Sunday morning said, 'So-and-so Arrested for Drunken Driving,' would you go to church?"

I've watched men blanch when Fred asked that question. When he asked it of me, I said: "Fred, I'm the preacher. I'd have a serious problem if I were caught driving drunk."

He asked, "Would you go to church?"

And I said, "No. I'd take a sabbatical for about a month and then try to weasel back in if I could."

And he said, "Steve, that's stupid. It's sort of like a man who's hit by an automobile, and he's got blood all over the place, and his bones are broken, and they try to take him to the hospital, and he says: 'Wait. I'm a mess. Let me go home and get cleaned up. Let me get these bones set, let me heal, and then I'll go to the hospital.'"

I grew up in churches like that. I pray to God that the Decatur church NEVER be that. EVER!

5 comments:

Josh Ross said...

That is powerful.

Amy C said...

What a wonderful post!

Jeff said...

I hope we become more and more open to the sick and hurting and the fact that at one time or another, we are all in the same condition and need the same attention to healing.

Jonathan said...

amen

Anonymous said...

To me it's no enough to say we welcome the broken. We must be the broken, not only when life fails to meet our expectations, but also when all is well materially, we simply must recognize our dependence upon the Almighty.