Have you ever come to the end of yourself, totally broken and without hope? Most of us in life have felt that way at one time or another. The question is, where do you go for help? Do you seek relief in some form of addiction or harmful relationship?
For the past two years, I have been doing volunteer work at the Women’s Community Support Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. This Christian-based ministry provides educational classes and mentoring to women in the community, free of charge. In addition, they offer a safe haven for women whose lives have been shattered by the abuse of drug or alcohol dependency.
These women are my heroes. Why do you ask? Because they had the courage to see their own brokenness and seek help. Every day, they get up and make an intentional decision to do life a different way, based on God’s Word. They’ve had to learn new ways of dealing with stress, disappointment, and pain in their life. They’ve had to break away from dysfunctional relationships and set firm boundaries with others. Every day, we ask these ladies to think differently about themselves, their worth, and their purpose in life.
When I first became a volunteer teacher, I wasn’t sure how I was going to relate because I hadn’t gone through any form of addiction. Yet, as I was working with these ladies, God showed me my own brokenness and that the root problem is the same for everyone… rebellion toward God. All of us want to do life our way. We want to decide what’s right and wrong for ourselves with no accountability to God.
There are four basic relationships of life that we all have, a relationship with God, with Self, with Others, and with Creation. Unfortunately, all four of these relationships are broken, and if you don’t believe me, just watch the evening news tonight. Genesis chapters 1 & 2, tell us how God created a perfect world then made Adam and Eve to have a perfect relationship with each other, with God, and with all creation. So, what happened? Well, Genesis chapter 3 tells us how Adam and Eve disobeyed God by deciding for themselves what was right and wrong for them to do. This one act of rebellion has set all of humankind on the road of brokenness.
The Good News is that God has provided a way to heal all the areas of our broken lives through His Son, Jesus Christ. Romans 10:9-10 says that if we will believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, then we will be saved… made right with God. And once our relationship with God is made right, then we can begin to heal our other broken relationships with self, with others, and with creation. Yes, we are all born broken, but you don’t have to stay that way. You can become a “new creation” and leave your old brokenness in the past because God can make all things new (2 Corinthians 5:17).
