It was Valentine’s Day of 2001. I came out of church and was on my way to my car in the parking lot when it happened. I stepped onto a yellow-painted curb and down I went like a ton of bricks. I wound up with a spiral fracture of my left ankle. In surgery they installed a plate and a bunch of screws to hold the ankle in the right position. I can walk again but my running days are over.
Now fast forward twenty years to August 8, 2021. Here I am coming out of church, missed a step and went down to my knees. I almost did a face plant and would have had I not put out my right hand to break my fall. Yep, you guessed it. I broke my right wrist and, once again, require surgery and a plate to be implanted. Someone suggested I might want to avoid going to church in 2041 because it seems like every twenty years I break something coming out of church!
Why am I telling you this sob story? Just to get sympathy? No. The truth is we are all broken people. Perhaps not physically broken but rather spiritually broken. Sin has broken our relationship with our God and now we are separated from Him. Romans 3:23 declares “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Isaiah 59:1, 2 tells us “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” We are a sin-stained, broken people who, apart from Jesus Christ, are hell-bound.
The good news for all of us spiritually broken people is that God loves us and has made a way for us to be healed of our brokenness through faith in Jesus Christ. He is our Redeemer who took our punishment upon Himself, went to the cross we deserved, died the death meant for us, and was resurrected to life for us. All we need do is come to Him bruised and broken in sin and by faith ask Him to save us. “Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). God will respond to your prayer by healing your spiritual brokenness. You will be forgiven of all your sins. You will be heaven-bound.
It doesn’t get any better than that for broken people,
Irv