Brokenness in Community

I wrote this first part several years ago while I was still in college. I found that it still rings true today. None of the original words were changed.

Brokenness in Community

I have seen and known the beauty of brokenness. But what is this brokenness that I’m talking about? When many people hear about being broken before the Lord they think of people wearing ashes, tearing their clothes, and being all together miserable. But what they fail to realize is the true meaning behind brokenness. Brokenness is being brought to true humility before the Lord and before the Body of Christ. And humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. Brokenness and humility go hand-in-hand with each other and they both lead to a beauty that is so indescribable that it can only be God.

Again I ask you, what is brokenness? Brokenness is coming before the Lord with what little you truly have and offering it all to Him. Brokenness is bowing down before God and acknowledging Him as Almighty God, King of all Kings, and the Lord of all Lords. Brokenness is coming before God with all your sins and depravity, placing it all at His feet and knowing through faith that He has already destroyed your sins and forgiven you, and has replaced all those faults with His unfailing, radical love. And brokenness is healing.

But what does brokenness have to do with community? I will tell you through my own personal application.

When I first came into Bethel I had my own certain view of the world, a certain view of people, a certain view of Christians, and I was firmly grounded in that view. But along with all my clothes and books that I brought with me in my suitcase to Bethel I also brought with me all my prejudices, judgments, viewpoints, and even my own sinful struggles. I saw myself as being a pretty good Christian – I mean I didn’t listen to single secular song, I didn’t watch the movies with murderous or sensual scenes in it, I didn’t swear, and I didn’t purposely try to act prideful. But Bethel being a pretty liberal university placed me into a whole new world where I was surrounded by Christians who did not all act like me in my conservative, strict ways and it kind of shook me up. Amidst this shaking God brought me into a safe haven with Pray First, where I was surrounded by people who eagerly wanted to learn more about prayer and to pray for other people. This was my community that I ran to whenever the pressure was so great I could collapse.

But what I found in this community was a group of people who saw me for who I really was along with all my faults and failures and still did not judge me. I found a community where you could go up to someone when you were struggling with sin, confess it to them, and have them look at you with this love that can only come from God, confess how much they love you, and then gently correct you through prayer and scripture. There was no condemnation, there was no judgment, and there was no rejection. This community accepted me just as I was and I have experienced freedom from so many wounds, so many prejudices, and they have taught me how to love with a God kind of love.

This is brokenness within community. It’s being able to go to each other, confess your sins, and confess that you need help, tell how wonderful or how poorly your day is going, and have the other(s) lavish God’s love on you in such a way that walls can’t help but come crumbling down. It’s speaking truth to each other, it’s speaking life to each other, and it’s expressing God’s fierce and radical love to each other.

What is sad, however, is that this type of community is pretty rare. How many people have tried to go to someone for help and ended up getting judged and walk away wounded. This is NOT the love that God wants us to lavish on each other. 1 Corinthians 13 says “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.” This is what love is, God’s love. I myself am convicted of not loving in this way. In fact, I have sinned by not loving in every possible way listed above. I have been impatient, unkind envious, boastful, proud. When my “enemies” are hurt I have rejoiced in them being hurt instead of rejoicing with the truth. I have not protected, I have not trusted, I have not hoped, and I have given up. But praise God we have a God who truly knows how to love and has forgiven me of every wrong I have committed.

How many of us claim to be Christians and yet do not love with the God kind of love? How can we say that Christ lives in us if we do not show God’s love to others? I had a girl approach me with tears the other day during Vespers because she was confused as to why the church could not love her just because she was a little different. And it broke my heart. Have we as a community, as the Body of Christ, strayed so far from love and truth that we have to turn around and hurt our brothers and sisters? This is not the love that God intended to be in the church. And I am truly sorry if you have been hurt by Christians because of their lack of love.

Now, I know it seems like I’ve taken a bunny trail but I actually turned a corner here in what I’m about to tell you. You see, God intended community to be a safe haven from the sins and turmoil of the world around you. And how can it be a safe haven if people are thrown out of the haven because of their faults and sins and differences. Matthew 7:1-2 says “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” To say it bluntly, don’t judge because you yourself are just as guilty of sin as that other person is. Sin is sin. But God’s love is radical and life changing.

If we as Christians ALL learned how to live within community with brokenness and humility before God and each other think of how incredibly powerful this would be! I mean if Jesus could love with God’s love (being only one person) and give an entire humanity freedom and salvation from sin and acceptance into this radical kind of love how much more can an entire population of people who love with God’s love do to this world. This may sound completely impossible, because after all we are human, but it all starts with your own brokenness and your own humility before God. And out of that brokenness the love that God lavishes on you will spill over and into the lives of everyone you are in contact with. Imagine, a whole world freed from every sin, every pain, and every wall of injustice and selfish ambitions; and imagine a world where brother could go to brother, sister to sister, and even brother to sister and everyone giving each other this kind of radical love and being broken before each other. This is the beauty of brokenness in community.