Have you ever noticed how many broken sea shells wash ashore with each wave? Walk on the beach after high tide and the hard, wet sand is filled with billions of shell fragments glistening in the sun. Walking across them is as close as most of us will come to a coal walk.

It’s fascinating to grab a handful and comb through it. Hundreds of tiny pieces each with their own unique color, size, and shape. As the waves bury my feet and the sea air fills my nostrils, I often wonder about each shell’s story. I think about the distance each shell travelled to get to where I’m standing. I think about what the whole shell once looked like before it was shattered into pieces.

And as I consider that each broken shell has a story of its own, I can’t help but remember the same is true of each human.

Not merely that everyone has their own life story, but that their story is tragically marred by brokenness. A brokenness that is independent of one’s circumstantial upbringing or environment.

Some encounter more visibly destructive situations leaving others to mistakenly think the absence of these maladies in their own lives signal completeness. Our eyes, easily drawn to the symptoms rather than the disease, deceive us.

It isn’t just the drug and alcohol addicted homeless man. It isn’t just the crooked politician. It isn’t just the cheating spouse who walked out on their kids. It isn’t just the murderer on death row. They aren’t the only ones who are broken.

We all are.

It is the heartfelt rebellion against God, our creator, that defines our brokenness. The God of the Bible, also known as Yahweh. This rebellion, or sin, exists in the heart of every man as we were born into this broken condition. As with any condition, side effects follow.

Praise be to God that we aren’t abandoned in this broken state. God has made a way for us to be restored to Himself, which naturally pieces us back together. It’s the shed blood of Jesus Christ which atones for our sin against Him. His innocence exchanged for our guilt.

But it isn’t until we can come to terms with the fact that we are broken, that we can begin to be pieced back together. After all, a doctor doesn’t come to heal the healthy, but the sick. You won’t come to Jesus until you realize you need Jesus.

You’ll still need Jesus, even if you don’t realize it.

It can be a hard thing to consider yourself broken. It sounds depressing. It seems wrong when you measure your life against others. The standard to measure yourself against is absolute perfection, however. It’s not doing more good than bad. Nor is it making more moral decisions than your neighbor. The standard to detect if you’re broken or not is whether you keep God’s holy law.

Keep that perfectly and you’re not broken. You’re perfect. You and Jesus alone are the only ones who lived in a way that pleased God from start to finish without a single sin.

But God is clear that the only one to live a perfect life was His son, Jesus. All else have sinned. All have failed miserably when tested against His perfect requirements in the law.

The law was created as a thermometer of sorts to show the sickness in every man, and direct them towards Jesus as the only way to be healed.

Jesus has the power to piece us back together because he paid for the sins that separated us from God in the first place. He died for them, satisfying God’s wrath and then rose from the dead, displaying that the payment was acceptable to God.

He gives us hope of a future glory where we will once again be with our maker in perfect relationship. There won’t be any sin, pain, or death. This hope proves to be the anchor for our souls in this present life, while we still are surrounded by brokenness.

So, as you look across the surf of life and see shattered fragment after fragment, let it not be a mere encouragement to civility and deceive yourself. Don’t address the symptom and overlook the disease. Run to Jesus Christ, for He alone is able to rescue us from the wrath we deserve. He alone is able to repair your brokenness.

 

Scripture References:

Genesis 3 – The fall of man and his first rebellion.

Mark 2:17 – It isn’t the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

Romans 3:23 – ALL have sinned.

Romans 3:20 – Through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

Colossians 1:20/Ephesians 1:7 – The shed blood of Jesus atones for our sins.

2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 – God’s wrath on those who don’t know Jesus.

Hebrews 6:19 – Jesus is the anchor for our soul.

Revelation 21:4 – No more death, suffering, pain for those who believe in Jesus.