Picking Up the Pieces

They say bad things happen for a reason,
But no wise words gonna stop the bleeding.
‘Cause she’s moved on while I’m still grieving,
And when a heart breaks, no it don’t break even.
–The Script

Zerrissenheit.

That’s German for the feeling of being “torn-to-pieces.” In a word, brokenness.

Something is painfully wrong with us. We can mask it. We can play make-up and make-believe, but our childish and clever illusions and delusions have an expiration date.

The band, “The Script,” explore the brokenness we experience in our relationships. How we seldom make a mutually “clean break” from a former lover. There is an inherent inequality to heartbreak; someone usually experiences loneliness alone.

The greatest lie Satan ever told is that we suffer alone. The solitary lack brotherly and sisterly solidarity. The truth is that God is actually most present when we feel most alone.

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
And saves the crushed in spirit.
–Psalm 34:18

The context of this passage makes it even more enlightening. David faked insanity in order to save his life (it seems the insanity defense is a rather ancient one). You see, David attempted an alliance with his enemy the Philistines against the first king of Israel, Saul. David attempts another Frank Underwood-esque plot. David turns on his own people by joining forces with the wicked Philistines in order to escape the hands of Saul, not trusting that God would protect him.

Like most of us, David’s brokenness and desperate mess is of his own creation. Like the captives in “Hotel California” and “Desperado”:

We are all just prisoners here of our own device.

Your prison is walking in this world all alone.

Yet, in spite of this horrible brokenness, David goes to God in prayer. Like “The Swift,” we are called to pray to a God that we fail to consistently trust:

I’m still alive but I’m barely breathing,
Just prayed to a god that I don’t believe in.

Like the man needing a miracle for his baby boy, we exclaim to Jesus, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.” Faith and doubt, pain and joy, disobedience and hope are more intertwined than we think.

So, where do we go with our brokenness? There must be an altar we can find wholeness, maybe even holiness. My mind cannot escape the beautiful words of communion when we confess, “Broken for you.” We break bread to remember Jesus’ body was broken to cure our brokenness. Like David before us, we are invited to “taste and see that the LORD is good” (Psalm 34:8).