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)