I was skimming through the recent issue of Christianity Today and noticed this quote: “Broken people can’t serve broken people.”
They never explained what was meant by that, and it did not make sense in the
context of an article about prison ministry. I don’t know what the person
intended, but my immediate reaction was “What?! How is that scriptural?”
In contrast, Phillip Holmes wrote, “I am the man I am today
because I have been broken down to my weakest state. God doesn’t use what he
cannot break (Proverbs 29:1), and there is no one too firm he cannot shake” (http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/broken-but-grateful).
The Apostle Paul put it this way, “So to keep me from
becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a
thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me
from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that
it should leave me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My
power is made perfect in weakness,’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly
of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians
12:7-9 ESV).
Those who have not been broken do not need to rely on God’s
strength. Those who don’t know that they are weak can’t really identify with or
minister to the rest of us. Breaking is necessary to make us usable by God. David
said, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart,
O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). God delights in people who have
come to the end of themselves and are wholly submitted to His will. His light
shines through our broken places.
“But God chose
what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the
world to shame the strong… so that no human being might boast in the presence
of God” (1 Corinthians 1:27, 29).
