Has you ever been broken?

Has you ever been broken?

In more than six years of writing Morning Briefings, I have never put down my pen, so to speak, for this length of time. 

       What happened?

       Where did I go, and why, without explanation?

In short, I guess I could say something broke… that something, my home.

Oh, I didn’t mean to stop writing for a period of time, or I would have announced my intention at the start.  Nor was I in a crisis of unbelief—far from it actually.  For me there is no closer sweetness than the presence of Jesus in times of trouble.  Like the beloved psalmist, I feel and believe in the depths of my being, that ‘Even when I walk
 through the darkest valley, 
I will not be afraid,
 for you are close beside me.’¹

All who have a pulse experience times of difficulty in this life; no one is exempt.  When the breakdowns come in our nuclear families, it is especially trying because Home is supposed to be a refuge.  Home is meant to be our sanctuary, a place to rest and be recharged, a place to feel cared for and safe.  So when Home breaks down, rest is troubled, peace of heart and mind are hard to come by, and the world around us seems tilted on its axis. 

Life happens.  Doesn’t mean I was under attack, as folks seem to have a bent to say far too casually—just means I am in relationship with people who have free will, just like me.  Free will was God’s idea after all. From the time God conceived of mankind, he knew he would give us free will – freedom to choose.  Hence, we are free to choose God . . . or not.

                 We are free to love others . . . or not.

                 We are free to be honest . . . or not.

   We are free to honor . . . or not.

Indeed, free will would not be if there was no option to choose the otherwise. 

Think of it—the perfect God of all love created us to have a relationship with him—yet he created us with the ability, yea even the propensity—to reject him outright.  Reminds of Lewis’s brilliant summation, “God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them.”²  And then he breaks it down further with, “If I may dare the biological image, God is a "host" who deliberately creates His own parasites; causes us to be that we may exploit and "take advantage of" Him. Herein is love. This is the diagram of Love Himself, the inventor of all loves.”

Oh, that is the great mystery of God that puts an eternal smile on our souls.

And then he went further still. As John the Beloved of Jesus wrote, “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”³  And God didn’t love us at the top of our games, but rather when he saw us swimming in our muck.  “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”⁴

And then Jesus, well – he is the ‘friend that sticks closer than a brother.’⁵   I know.  I have felt his kindly presence—especially in the past weeks when troubles have been many. Jesus is my bridge over troubled water, and there are calmer waters ahead, I know.

I am endeavoring to write again, for there is much work to be done.  Would you please Pray for me?  Especially that God will fill me with his Spirit and speak to me from his Word that I might impart it in the ways he would have me—to believers in 127 countries, to my corporate brothers, to my dear Women of Passion, and through the re-edit of Morning Briefings – my book on Philippians and Colossians which will soon be released.

And if you are in a time of trouble yourself, turn to the one who loves you completely, Jesus.  He promises peace and he alone delivers it.⁶

^Christine

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