I want to say I'm a woman who is willing to model honesty and brokenness--serious casualties to a social life. - Jennifer Uwarow
I will not presume that I know exactly what Jennifer had in mind when she wrote this. However, since the day I first read it, it has been on my mind, heavy and convicting. Everything about this statement screams rebellion to ideals conceived by a superficial and dying culture. What the world perceives as thriving, is rotting in the eyes of God. I often struggle with working out these two ideas in my life. Brokenness is a never ending process, requiring an honest look at the self. Admitting sin, and repenting from it. Accepting weakness and relying on God in it. Acknowledging our failures and trusting Christ's righteousness. Knowledge of the true character of the Maker produces humility. To be constantly humbled by that knowledge, results in brokenness. Brokenness fashions obedience.
Breaking and obeying. This is the daily work of the Christ follower. We trangress our Lord and others in thought and thoughtless deeds; in calculated insults and cynical evaluations. We stumble daily and yet are lifted by hope in sanctification. As Michelangelo meticulously cracked and chipped the stone to reveal David, so God chips and cracks our imperfections, to reveal Christ. We are in a constant state of being redeemed by our Lord. "For He wounds, but He also binds up; He shatters but His hands also heal," Job 5:18. God crushes the sin in us, though painful. He cuts away the cancer, no matter how established. Constant death to the self is it's manifestation. Emulating honesty and brokenness is a task. So I will set out, unprepared, on this unknown path. Traversing the mountains and valleys armed with the Spirit and grace. If my savior bore a cross, so must I. If my Lord required death to redeem the self in me, then I must die to that self, also.
Breaking and obeying. This is the daily work of the Christ follower. We trangress our Lord and others in thought and thoughtless deeds; in calculated insults and cynical evaluations. We stumble daily and yet are lifted by hope in sanctification. As Michelangelo meticulously cracked and chipped the stone to reveal David, so God chips and cracks our imperfections, to reveal Christ. We are in a constant state of being redeemed by our Lord. "For He wounds, but He also binds up; He shatters but His hands also heal," Job 5:18. God crushes the sin in us, though painful. He cuts away the cancer, no matter how established. Constant death to the self is it's manifestation. Emulating honesty and brokenness is a task. So I will set out, unprepared, on this unknown path. Traversing the mountains and valleys armed with the Spirit and grace. If my savior bore a cross, so must I. If my Lord required death to redeem the self in me, then I must die to that self, also.
All along I thought
I was learning how to take
How to bend not how to break
How to live not how to cry
But really
I've been learning how to die
Learning How To Die | Jon froeman
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