The Breaking

It’s good to be in the process of being broken… and to realize that I already was broken. And weak. And desperately in need.

In a recent Revive Our Hearts broadcast, Joni Eareckson Tada (who, in case you’re not familiar with her, has been paralyzed from the neck down for 40 years) said,

“Virtually every morning this paralysis pushes me to the throne of God to require His grace. Maybe the really handicapped people are those who when they wake up in the morning and hear the alarm clock go off, they jump out of bed; they take a quick shower; they scarf down breakfast. They go out the front door on automatic cruise control…

God says in James chapter 4, ‘He resists the proud’ (James 4:6b, paraphrase). Some translations say, ‘He opposes [He’s against] the proud.’

Who are the proud? The people—the women—who think they’ve got life figured out. Okay, I got this thing. I’ve got it now Lord. I’ll go ahead on my own steam, and I’ll just check in with You every now and again when I need You, but I can do this thing called life. God says, ‘If that’s the way you wake up in the morning and face your day, I’m against you. I resist the proud, but (and here’s the best part) He gives grace to the humble.’

Nancy, you and I know that the humble are simply those who recognize their desperate need for God; their ‘empty hand’ of spiritual poverty.“

It can be easy to gloss over my weakness. It’s much harder to live in poverty of spirit, to feel it deeply and yearn for His strength. But He said His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

That radio broadcast brought me to tears this morning because it resonated with my heart and the aching weakness I feel. It showed me that brokenness is a gift. A soft heart can only come from the Lord.

So often I am prideful, arrogant, hardhearted. But He looks to the one who is humble and contrite.

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