Brokenness

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

 

Psalm 51:15-19

 

Every day at twilight, a good shepherd will count his sheep. If one is missing, he will go out to find it before night falls. And the shepherd will notice if the same sheep is gone night after night, for that little lamb is developing a very bad habit. After this happens several times, the shepherd will go looking for the sheep as usual, but this time he does something out of the ordinary.

 

He will pick up the wandering sheep, firmly holding it with one arm while at the same time positioning his solid staff against one of the sheep's legs. Then with a swift and strong motion, he will snap the little lamb's leg with the staff.

 

Why would a caring shepherd break the leg of a harmless sheep?

 

How could a committed shepherd do such a cruel thing?

 

A well known author and speaker provides an answer: "Back in the fold the shepherd makes a splint for the shattered leg and, during the days that follow, he carries that crippled sheep close to his heart. As the leg begins to mend, the shepherd sets the sheep down by his side. To the crippled animal, the smallest stream looms like a giant river, the tiniest knoll rises like a mountain. The sheep depends completely on the shepherd to carry it across the terrain. After the leg has healed, the sheep has learned a lesson—it must stay close to the shepherd's side."

 

The shepherd knows that the sheep must remain close to him if it is to be protected from danger. So he breaks the leg—not to hurt it—but to restore it.

 

Sometimes God brings us to brokenness in our very own lives, in order for us to know what it means to be held close to the Shepherds heart. And like that with the sheep, once we are fully restored to wholeness we now know what it means to stay close to the Shepherd's side.

 

Make brokenness something you choose not to fight and resist, as you seek to see your brokenness as away to more fully trust in the Great Shepherd.