Friday, October 12, 2012

Day 12: Brokenness as Bankruptcy

One of the definitions of broken is bankrupt.

Makes sense.

It's a pretty common college phrase to say, "I'm broke." aka Not. Much. Money.

And I wonder if this idea of brokenness fits with Jesus' words about poverty . . .

Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

The New Living Translation goes so far as to say:
God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

Poverty. Brokenness.

I have a dear friend who's making it to the end of her thread-barren rope. She needs $300 by next month to pay rent. She has no job (though she's searching), one incredible son in fifth grade. She ran out of bus-tickets. She's overwhelmed and afraid and worried . . .

Broken.

But she still tries to seek God, to trust Him . . . even in her fear. She is amazing.

She knows poverty.

She knows poverty of possession. I wonder if poverty of spirit is similar. I wonder if to be poor in spirit is to be weak, to realize we are in BIG TROUBLE if God doesn't show up. I wonder if poverty of spirit means that we have cut back every "fluff" in our lives, every aspect that makes us comfortable . . . too comfortable but not healthy. I wonder if brokenness is about awareness of our need. We need Jesus.

What do you think? Any ideas?

1 comment:

Briana said...

I agree. I believe brokenness is the place where we become aware of how much we need our Savior. It is so easy to think we aren't bad sinners, at least not as bad as so and so but in reality, we need to be reminded of how bad our sin is, that it holds the same weight. We are the worst of sinners and we need a Savior. We had a chapel speaker talk about this Monday where we need to remember the depth of our sin. He said how it is hard for those who grew up in a Christian home to fully appreciate it because they do not understand the deep tole of the world and he wasn't saying that to have us all become worldly to experience it. He was just encouraging us to see our brokenness and the depths of our sin so that we rely on our Great, Amazing Savior!