Where is God in the Brokenness?

I travel a lot as a writer. I go weird and wonderful destinations and meet weird and wonderful people, and aren’t those just the best kind of people anyway?

Whether I’m out of town for a night or two or five, it doesn’t seem to matter - I return home to a mild amount of sheer chaos. As picked up as the house was four minutes before I walked in the door, it’s like a tornado rips through the living room at the point of my entry. Legos. Notebooks. Plates. Tissues. Half an apple. A dishwasher pod sitting by itself on the dining room table.

The things that drive me the most batty, though, are the broken things. Someone’s iPhone charger, the cord split at the bottom, no charger box in sight. This item is useless. It could have easily made its way to the trashcan. Why didn’t someone just pitch it?

Sometimes I feel the same way about the world, full of brokenness, so far gone:

Violence

Meanness

Apathy

Disconnection

Where is God in this brokenness? 

We are not the first ones to ask this question:

Exhibit A – Job

Job is maybe the most famous victim of brokenness. Life steamrolled him while he was simply walking down the road, minding his own business. He wasn’t perfect, but wow, did brokenness crash in. When it crashed in he looked all around him and wondered why he was the recipient of this awful road and others weren’t, particularly those who were stream-rolling other people. Listen to Job’s lament…about roads, nonetheless:

Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty,
    and why do those who know him never see his days?

They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;
    they take the widow's ox for a pledge.
They thrust the poor off the road;
    the poor of the earth all hide themselves. Job 24:1,3-4

Why doesn’t God take action?

Why doesn’t God interfere with all our brokenness?

Exhibit B – Israel

Job is possibly the oldest book of the Bible chronologically. If we move forward in time, we find Israel, enslaved, in Egypt and crying out to God, 

“Where are You, in all this brokenness?

God responds with the Law. This is another step in God’s big grand plan to help us understand. I think the Israelites thought the Law would solve everything, one infraction at a time. This section of Scripture looks like this:

“‘Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

“‘Cursed be anyone who moves his neighbor's landmark.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

“‘Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind man on the road.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

“‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ Deuteronomy 27:16-19

The Law was an important piece of the salvation puzzle. We need it. The Israelites needed it. We have so much mess, that, yes, the Law does make a difference. But that doesn’t make it God’s complete answer. Thank the LORD. Jesus is the real answer to brokenness. God sent His only Son because we are broken, we are foolish, the world all around us is foolish, and we need salvation, no matter the road we take, be it the high road, like Job, or the low road as it were.

Exhibit C – Paul

 In his first letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul verbalizes the reality of brokenness even after Jesus came, even after the God of the Universe died for our sins. We really, really want it all to be solved now, not in the not-quite-yet. We know Jesus and so we have a new twist on an old question:

“Jesus, where are You in the brokenness?”

If You saved the whole world, why aren’t You saving me from this?

In 1 Corinthians 11:17-22 Paul recognizes the brokenness even within the church and I’m thankful to him for putting into words this reality. He wrote his reminder to the Corinthians, who were excluding, creating factions, and hoarding, of all things, the Lord’s meal. 

Paul’s answer to this is so simple, so back to the basics, that we can miss the application to the bigger picture of our broken roads:

 “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread…” 1 Corinthians 11:23

Brokenness in the world won’t be solved until Jesus comes back for us, until New Creation, and no more tears, and the golden road become our everyday reality. And Jesus saw that big picture when He broke that bread.

God’s answer to brokenness is rarely stepping in. Sometimes, He does. Sometimes miracles happen and justice looks just like we wanted it. But God’s answer to brokenness, until Jesus comes again, is always connecting. He became the bread, so we can break it and share it. He took the bread and shared it with the disciples so they could share it with one another. He took the bread, broke the bread of His body, so that we can take the bread, and break the body and share it. That connection runs through us to others, back to us, in the Spirit. Whatever road we walk, whatever brokenness we encounter, we have Jesus and we have one another. Sometimes, we will need to carry one another down the road. That’s how we see God’s answer to the brokenness in the midst of it. 

“Jesus, where are You in the brokenness?”

I’m here, My Spirit living inside you.

I’m here, come sit at My table.

I’m here, walking on a road alongside you.

Up Next: Can You Tell Me How to Get to Easy Street?

In the Meantime: Let’s pray together today. In the comments add a prayer for anything broken in the world around you. We’ll respond with He leads and He restores. You can also catch the latest Life in Relationship podcast episode: The Mystery of Prayer