Category: believer

There is a Crack in Everything

“Ring the bells that still can ring/Forget your perfect offering/There is a crack in everything/That’s how the light gets in.”

Leonard Cohen,  Anthem

A crack in everything. As someone who has experienced brokenness in my life,  I appreciate the wisdom of these simple words. You see, I am intensely aware of being different then others.

I had a night job working my way through school frying donuts.  I remember clearly an incident were I overheard my boss telling someone that, “Bryan is one of the most eccentric people I have ever met.” Now I honestly was not trying to be odd, or eccentric.

To put this in perspective, I just happened to be taking N.T. Greek at the time and knew that the word for eccentric was a contraction, (of ek, meaning “off, or off to one side, and “centros”, meaning, “center”).  He was saying that I was “off centered”. That really troubled me because I always felt like I was intensely stable, and very much a well-balanced person. (But I was just 22.  I guess that fact alone explains much.)

Cohen’s poem tells us certain things. First, he describes bells that can’t be used, they don’t work anymore. Second, he tells us of our need to get real and to understand that “a perfect offering” is beyond our capability. Maybe 30 years ago, ‘naive idealism’ might have carried the day for us. But now I’m in my mid-50s  and I have tried to figure out a thing or two.   By then we start to see the cracks in everything, nothing has gone by untouched. We live in a fallen and broken world.

But the poet delivers a paradoxical truth, he states, “that’s how the light gets in.”

To learn this deeply, is to turbocharge your recovery. You’re a broken person. But that is actually a good thing. It summons up a discernment of how we grow spiritually.

I find it quite astonishing that the broken, weak, and the burned-out are closer to the Kingdom then the strong, the sure, and the gifted. This is a rich and an incredible truth, we are to see our brokenness and ruination in a whole different perspective.  We must see that that is how the light gets in.

“Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.”

Matthew 5:3

“God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.”

Vance Havner

bry-signat-1

cropped-christiangraffiti1 (2)

 

Related articles

In Your Lifetime?

second-coming

“And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”

Luke 21:27

There is nothing more compelling, and more certain than the return of Jesus Christ. There is a huge interest in the speculation and books, tapes, websites etc: I suppose that this is good. Perhaps we would live more sincerely, and authentically if we understood fully the imminent return of Jesus.

This just may be a twist. But many of us struggle in areas of personal godliness. Perhaps much of our personal conflict, our deep failure and compromised living is missing this critical element– a deep confidence of the sudden return of the King.

I suppose that living life with a daily awareness that this “second coming” is to be “on the front burner.” It is both inescapable and completely unavoidable. Jesus Himself compares the days leading up to the Second Coming to the time preceding the great flood of Noah’s day. Unsuspecting people lived life to the fullest right up to the moment of the flood, having ignored the warnings–just as people ignore the signs of Christ’s imminent return today.

When we are sincere and true, we will almost always have a strong sense that Jesus is about ready to ‘stand up.’ He is very close to taking visible control. Up to now the Kingdom has been hidden. But soon, very soon, it will get very obvious. I suppose many believers, will suddenly be shocked when Jesus steps in visibly.

Imagine your response to having your world interrupted by Him. He interjects His presence “in your face.” Whether you agree or not, suddenly He is here. There was an old gospel song, “I Wish We Had All Been Ready,” which shares the earnestness, and the sadness of the many who are missing others who weren’t ready to leave.

“Precisely because we cannot predict the moment, we must be ready at all moments.”

C.S. Lewis

bry-signat (1)

cropped-christiangraffiti1.jpg

&]

Related articles

Chosen People of Faith

Good_shepherd_02b_close
Shepherd of Hermes, (catacombs c. 160)

The Shepherd of Hermas, written c.125 AD, repeatedly declares that the Church has always existed, since the beginning of creation. The Old Testament believers are joined by those in the New Testament Christians in one single community of faith. Paul asserts that this faith unites us with each other; that we all have a common calling. (Hebrews 11.)

It seems you share a familiar bond, perhaps closer than you think, with Abraham, Noah or Isaiah. All of the OT saints are welded to us as we walk out our faith in Jesus. Personally I find that comforting.

God has always had a people who have been “chosen.” As a broken believer I will take all the godly encouragement I can. We are pulled in so many different directions; it’s hard sometimes to cope. Knowing I walk in an “unbroken line” of the faithful gives me “vim and vigor.”

I can now more deeply relate to guys like Joseph, who faithfully followed God from slave-to-prince. Or the three Hebrew children who walked around in the fiery furnace. By faith we possess the same hope as they did, we have the same God and Father. I believe it wouldn’t be off-base to call them family.

The nuances become clearer as we reflect on our mental illnesses. Noah built an ark. I’m constructing a sane mind. He went through the jeering abuse from his neighbors. I have to decide to get out of bed. All must be done through faith. Faith in God unites us. Faith is that which gives us “a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7.) Faith in God connects me with Noah.

“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. 2 Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.”

Hebrews 11:1-2, NLT

Hebrews 11 connects our faith with theirs. It even hints that our own faith enhances their own.

“All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. 40 For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.”

Hebrews 11:39-40

I didn’t mean to dump a load of “dry theology” on you. But I suspect that there could be healing for us if we venture to take it up. Good theology can be like good hygiene, if you don’t have it you will notice. (So will your friends.) I have come to see that the things we believe, affect us in significant and profound ways.

Your 21st century struggle of faith is as significant as David’s own battle with Goliath. It’s something to consider anyway. Read Hebrews 11.

“Faith makes all things possible… love makes all things easy.” 

D.L. Moody

bry-signat (1)

cropped-christiangraffiti1.jpg

“Let’s Trade Your Salvation” by Isaac Air Freight

Episode: “Let’s Trade Your Salvation”

Isaac Air Freight was a Christian comedy team first formed in 1976. It originally consisted of three people, Dave Toole, Dan Rupple, and Larry Watt. Watt left after the release of their first album. He was replaced by Mitch Teemley, who largely did serious or “good guy” parts, for the second and third albums. (Watt and Teemley did not contribute to the writing. After leaving Isaac Air Freight, Teemley formed the team Mitch & Allen for which he wrote as well as acted.)

Rupple and Toole released five more Isaac Air Freight albums. The last of these, Over Our Heads (1987), featured contributions from members of Christian rock band Daniel Amos.

Comedy is not our usual fare here on BB, and maybe that should change.  IAF brought a slightly more sophistication to the Church theater or skit scene.  They inspired a lot of believers to work in the creative arts.  In some sense I suppose you could describe them as a Christian version of Monty Python, but that isn’t a real good analogy either.

Here at BB we have the Contemporary Christian Music Index.  It is a link that opens up early Christian music of the 70s-80s.  You’ll find this index (which is constantly growing,  https://brokenbelievers.com/?s=CCM

 

cropped-cropped-christiangraffiti1.jpg