bROKEN

I feel that humans generally fall into two camps about inner brokenness: Purging or Promoting.

Purgers are the people who see their own brokenness or other's and seek to purge it out. Broken=Bad. Get rid of it, hide it, cure it, fix it, regulate it into oblivion.

A worldview for example that is a purge-type would be Buddhism, where the only reason you suffer in this world is because you are connected to it, and if you purge all connection to this world you will be enlightened to Nirvana and be absorbed into the cosmic energy, cease to exist, and therefore escape suffering.

Kind of intense if you ask me.

The other type is Promoters. Promoters see brokenness and might feel a sense of shame or rejection, but rather than acknowledge it as being broken, they re-brand brokenness. Often promotion-type worldviews take a, "How dare you try to shame me!" stance and embrace their brokenness, often even as an identity.

Promotion-types often feel rejected by standards (often set by purge-types), and in response act rebellious. After all, you can't reject someone who rejects your standards, because they won't acknowledge your standards of judgement but will instead oppose.

A worldview that would be Promotion-type would be Nihilistic-Hedonism. Hedonists believe everything in life serves only to meet their desires, they have no reason to withhold any desires or urges, in fact fulfilling their desires is to a Hedonist the ultimate point of life.

While a Purge-type might say that sensual appetite should be controlled or forbidden, that excess lust is bad, a Promoter-type like a Hedonist might say the exact opposite and pursue sexual gratification wantonly and perhaps even flout their hyper-sexuality in the face of a Purge-type.

Sounding familiar to the world around us yet? Likely so.

However.

I believe there are only two broken types in our humanity, on our own we all fall somewhere along the spectrum of Purge or Promote, BUT-

I do believe there is a third camp for Brokenness.

What are you saying?? You are LITERALLY contradicting yourself! Bear with me.

Outside of our broken humanity exists a third but unbroken personality: God. (Maybe you don't buy into Him, but hang out anyway because you might change your mind or prove me wrong, you're welcome to either path.)

We are literally all broken in one way or another despite our best efforts, each human, it's sin. Sin is the name of the brokenness we all suffer from. No one, no matter how put together they are, is free from flaw or error. That brokenness has a name and it's name is sin.

Did someone do something to hurt you? You were broken by their sin, they used their brokenness to damage you further. Did you harm someone? Your brokenness caused damage to someone else. Life can be pretty simply categorized into these two effects of human brokenness.

But God had a plan to fix it, it's actually good news, (which is where The Gospels get their names, from the Greek word "Euangelion" meaning good news), like REALLY good news.

I will get into His plan itself later, but the results of this plan of His are that through Him there is now a THIRD option. The effects of brokenness don't magically disappear, but instead it is transformed in a tri-fold way:

First, literal redemption. The term is a banking term basically saying the debt has been paid in full, nothing else is owed on that account. (Great news for the purge types.) Brokenness is like a gnawing void that is never satisfied until it has consumed you, as Hedonism consumes pleasures and seeks to fill the void so the void of brokenness consumes a Hedonist; but the void we couldn't fill is filled and paid up by God Himself. We may try to build up our shattered pieces into our own image, but all our man-made images are destined to be consumed. Being remade in HIS image and to reflect His wholeness is ultimate redemption.

Second, acceptance. Whether you tried covering things up with being "good" or just labeled the brokenness as "good" the effects were the same. Broken people, still being impacted by the infection of sin without a cure to cease being impacted by or impacting others. Through God's gift we can be accepted AS-IS, broken bits and all. No need to hide or re-brand. (Good news for Promoters and Purgers.)

Thirdly, hope. Hope is knowing that there is something better ahead and anticipating it, it isn't wishful thinking and idle daydreaming. There is hope that through God's plan the broken will find new life.

Much like a shattered vase has little hope of being whole again, so do we in our own capacity. Who would have know though that a Master craftsman would pick up our pieces with a purpose, no longer to disintegrate into shapeless dust, but intending to make us into His own unbroken image.

Accepting His plan doesn't keep us from experiencing the shattering effects of life, rather He uses each circumstance like an artisan with his tools, allowing the cuts to fall in very specific places. We don't see His mercy in those painful strikes against us, but we have hope knowing someday we will step back and be shown the intricate and breathtaking mosaic He crafted out of the broken pieces of our lives, a Mosaic that reveals His image through us and His character grown in us.

From the broken comes wholeness, through the unbroken One that allowed Himself to be shattered in our place and who took on wholeness again by His own ability, granting the path to wholeness for every broken person.

Boom. A lot of words, I know, but it's a big concept and it can be hard to articulate something so... divine.

Ready for a Barney style summary?

God made everything, and it was very good. He made humans to reflect His character and be companions with Him in building more in the good world. A creature in rebellion convinced our humans ancestors to seek their own definition of wholeness and brokenness. Through that deception entered sin, the broken void that has consumed mankind. Brokenness cannot be in the presence or wholeness or risk being destroyed in the presence of something so perfect and solid.

God knew no one could overcome the void of brokenness, except Himself, and He still desired to be in companionship with us. God humbled himself and entered into His creation and experienced all the effects on broken humanity firsthand, allowed corrupt men to condemn Him though He was innocent, and gave up His life willingly and out of love to pay the price of our sin and brokenness. He then took up life, whole, by His own ability and returned to tell us He had good news - He overcame brokenness with His perfect wholeness. Now anyone who wanted to be whole and escape the void of brokenness has a free escape, just acknowledge He did what He said He did, and invite Him in all His wholeness to come into your inner being and transform every crack and knick to reflect Him

Bam.

A third way to see our brokenness, one that doesn't rely on us broken people to escape or to evade the problem, a solution that is always full of hope.