Living in a Broken World

“What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be
counted.”
(Ecclesiastes 1:15)

As a child, when something was broken, usually an adult would fix it.  It seemed whatever happened, an adult, be it
parent, teacher, or neighbor could easily solve the problem that troubled us
younger folks.  As I got older, there
were problems that even an adult could not fix.
They tried, and gave it their best attempt, but their solutions often
did not work.  Many times, they shook
their heads and admitted they had the same thing broken in their own lives and
did not know how to repair it for themselves.

After I was saved, I learned that there was someone that could fix
situations and dilemmas that no one else could fix.  It was not the psychiatrist, for they had
their own unfixable problems.  It was not
the pills of the doctors, for many times, they could only fix the symptoms and
not the root of the problem.  It was not
the wisdom of the teachers, for many of them had no idea or experience to fix
many of the traumas one faced in this life.
It was the wisdom delivered by God that could fix anything!

“Unfixable” things could be fixed by following the advice in His word, the
Bible, or heard from the preaching of His word, and even gleaned from
biblically-related writings.  His wisdom
has helped millions upon millions.  His
advice, when obeyed, can fix many broken things in our lives.

Because of the damage sin has done to this world, our hearts will never
find what they truly need here.  This world
is simply not what it was created to be, and to live in it is to hurt
deeply.  No one has tasted the bitterness
of our experience any more than God Himself.
He has lived among us, and when His great heart had contemplated the
magnitude and the hurtfulness of what is wrong, “Jesus wept.” (John
11:35)

It is foolish to underestimate the brokenness of this world.  The wiser we become, the more we see the
complete wretchedness of our earthly condition.
“For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more
grief.”
(Ecclesiastes 1:18)  The wise
man, who has come to see that this world is tragically and irretrievably
broken, will tend to be a man of sorrows.  

The annoying truth is this, we cannot have anything more than partial
happiness as long as we live here.  Our
deepest needs cannot and will not be fully met in this life.  To pretend otherwise is dangerously
dishonest, and we’ll be better off the minute we stop denying the seriousness
of our unmet needs.

Yet it is also foolish to underestimate God.  As much as we need to face this world’s
brokenness, we need even more to face the ultimate reality of God.  We must learn to see His mercy as our
salvation, His promise as our joy.  As we
fix our hope on His perfection, however, we must still not forget the
imperfection of the world that we presently live in. 

God’s Son did not die to make us healthier, wealthier, and happier in the
here and now.  He died to redeem us from
the sin that is in our hearts and to give us eternal life.  God gives us help, but He does not plan to
fix this world.  What He plans to fix is us,
and then bring us to live where He is.
As for this world, God plans to destroy it.

“In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart
until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful
grace of God.”
–Aeschylus

Let us deal no more in artificial, romantic solutions. Let us let God be
God.

“To know of God without knowing of man’s misery causes pride. To know of
man’s misery without knowing of God causes despair.”
–Blaise Pascal

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to
test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice
insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad
when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are
blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of
you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if
anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God
in that name.”
(1 Peter 4:12-19)


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