August 27, 2016
This morning I was reading Isaiah 61. I stopped on verse 4 that says “They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.” This verse made me think of the ancient ruins and places long devastated that are in our lives. The places where we are broken and despite the look of it, not yet healed. The brokenness has been so long that we have lived with it.
When you walk with the Lord, He shines a light on the broken places so that He can heal them. Sometimes, there are broken places that we try to keep from Him. Places where we think we are healed, but He knows we are still broken. It’s these places where perhaps we have been devastated for generations. It is perhaps the places that have been broken in our family line since our grandmother. It’s the places of generational curses. We have witnessed this brokenness in others in our family, but it can be hard to see it in ourselves. We have built a foundation on the idea of “well I am not going to be like that when I grow up” since we were young. So we have blinded ourselves to the fact that that place in our life is broken. It might look pretty and not look as bad as it did in our grandmother, but nevertheless it is still broken.
This got me thinking about what causes something to heal physically and what happens when it doesn’t. When someone breaks a bone the way it is corrected is that the broken ends of the bones are aligned and immobilized. With this immobilization and alignment they are able to grow back together over time. Often these broken bones are placed in uncomfortable casts. Now I have never had a cast, but I have known plenty of people that have and I have yet to hear anything good about the experience. It is painful, it changes the way you can move and limits the things you can do. It produces itches that you cannot reach to scratch and can even make sleeping uncomfortable. It sounds like something that is best to be avoided.
Let me go back to the healing process for broken bones. So after the initial injury our bones are aligned and immobilized. Our body will then form a blood clot and fibroblasts that make what we might think of as a scab in the injury site. This occurs internally and is what begins the process of holding everything together. Now lets think about that for a minute, the physical healing process begins with blood. I will just leave that right here for a minute…Once the internal scab is created a sort of bony callus is formed. This bony callus is remodeled and hardened until the point of brokenness is as strong as it was before the break occurred. So let me recap this for a minute, the blood goes to the place of brokenness and clots (in a clot, the blood (platelets) rushes to the spot of injury and forms a barrier). The blood not only begins the healing process, but it also protects from further injury by forming a barrier. Once the blood connects the broken pieces then a bony callus (which is where bony and cartilaginous materials form a sort of “bridge” around the break) forms to strengthen the site of the injury. This “bridge” gets stronger each day until it becomes as strong as it was originally.
Think about that for a minute. When we look at our own lives and the brokenness that exists (whether we want to admit it or not) have we allowed Jesus in that area of our lives? Have we applied the blood in that spot? Not just a cursory application; one where we give it to Jesus and then take it back. No, have we allowed Jesus to take that broken place and cover it with the blood in a way that a clot was formed? In a way that the place of our brokenness is now behind the barrier of the blood of the only one who can heal it or are we still trying to do it our way? Are we still saying “I’m okay?” If we have not opened ourselves up in that place, then how can healing begin?
We must take the broken places to Jesus. We need to sit immobilized in His presence until our brokenness is aligned with His grace. Let the blood of Jesus rush to the injury site (stop thinking that you are not injured, the definition of injury is hurt, damage, or loss sustained. We all have these places in our lives and until we can look them in the face honestly and admit that it is a place of pain then we can’t be healed.) When His blood infiltrates our broken places, His grace, love, peace and promises form the bridge that make us stronger each day. We don’t have to be victims of our pain, it does not rule us. We have been promised the victory, but for victory to come we must allow the Lord to work at the injury sites in our lives. To do that we need to understand, admit and surrender the points at which we are broken.
Just like wearing a cast, the process of healing can be painful, uncomfortable, appear to limit us and change how we move. Jesus takes us out of our comfort zone. He will cause you to look at your brokenness, understand it and see His healing hands upon it. You may not be able to move the way you used to, or do the things you used to do. You may have itches you can’t reach, but that is because the blood is doing a new thing in you. It is taking the brokenness and making it whole so you won’t walk the same, but you will walk taller. You won’t move the same, you will move in a new way powered by the Spirit of God. You will move farther than you ever thought possible. As you go through the healing process, you won’t even notice that old itch anymore. You will be healed, restored made whole in the newness of Christ. So don’t keep the broken places to yourself. Give them to the one that can make them better, stronger, healed and whole.
Leadership Uncontained, LLC 