God Loves Broken Things

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Our congregation got a new Bishop, and as usual, the outgoing Bishop brought up a topic that really resonated with me. I will be sad to see him go, because he was good at pointing out things that I had never seen that way before. Like last time I mentioned him, this particular sermon revolved around a song he knew, one I had never heard, but one which I think you should.

In order to be useful, many things must first be broken. This doesn't mean every step requires a break, because children don't enjoy toys that are already broken, but things we know and seek are made from other things. I teach in Chemistry class the following practiced personal anecdote: "In order to rearrange matter, bonds must be broken". None of us have need directly for almonds or pickles or chocolate, and by themselves studs and sheetrock and spackle don't provide much of a shelter from the storm. It is only as we repurpose these items to our benefit that they become valuable to us, and that requires us to break them into other things.

Chemistry involves converting what we have under specific circumstances into what we desire. At the very basic level, bonds are broken constantly and then rebuilt. Broken down, each of the raw materials can be rebuilt into something different, something better, something more useful. I don't think it's the broken part so much that interests God as much as it offers Him the chance to remake us from what we were into something that we could be but couldn't see until something broke us.

People don't usually like broken things or to be broken. It makes us appear weak. It makes us appear that we are not in control. Truth is that we are weak and we control far less than we believe. I greet people who opine the fact that so many things lie outside their control with "welcome to adulthood where the illusion of control is made up, accomplishments don't matter, and people will laugh at every mistake you make". However, I love it when lego sets are broken down into pieces. Anyone who ever hurt themself trying to separate lego blocks knows that it's no sign of weakness or shame to use the special tool provided for that.

It is embarassing yes when you break yourself against the commandments. it shows us that we are less than we ought. However, as I tell my students, getting an F doesn't mean you are a failure or that you must continue to fail. It shows you where to refocus your efforts. In the case of commandments, our broken promises to God, we cannot save ourselves. These opportunities show us where to focus our efforts and more importantly our faith.  Far too many members of my own Faith attempt to save themselves before they turn to Christ or turn to Him more as a consultant than the General Contractor. It's pride. CS Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity about how uncomfortable it is to invite Christ to remake your life. We just want him to repaint, redecorate, and rearrange things in our lives. He is not satisfied with that. He begins knocking down walls and adding on wings and floors because He is making us a fit abode for the King.

As the song and scripture remind us, in order to be made well, made whole, and made better, we must have a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Many of God's choicest souls went through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else, not to test them, but to temper them and make them ready for reassembly. When a member of my congregation said farewell back in April because he is getting married and moving away, he told me that some people must wander longer in the wilderness. Each of us must spend some time wandering in Sinai, being made ready to enter the Land of Promise. In order for His people to inherit the goodly land, God had to make sure they had broken hearts. I remember Neal Maxwell once saying that when we are ready for planting God will stop plowing. Only when the soil is properly broken can it accept the seed of faith, the seeds of success, and the seeds of salvation.

Christ Himself is the example of broken things lifted on high. He condescended below all things. He was betrayed by friends, taken before an illegal trial, arrested without charge, tried without counsel, convicted without witnesses, condemned without jurisprudence, and executed without appeal. In order to lift us up when we were broken, in order to put our lives back together once we break ourselves against the commandments, Christ had to be broken too. If we truly desire to be where He is, we must follow His example, which means that after we break ourselves against the commandments we break our own pride and haughtiness and bow before Him to plead for mercy. CS Lewis wrote that the prayers in trough periods please God best. When we are broken, then we are truly honest with, completely open to, and finally ready for Him. God loves broken things. Those are the things He can use to build into what He desires.