3.28.2013

Brokenness Poured Out

brokenness

softhearted vessel before God

Breathe those words for just a moment, a softhearted vessel before God.  Beauty.  Plain beauty to me.  I would love for that to be something someone says about me when I am gone.  "She was such a softhearted vessel before God."  David talked about his broken spirit as a sacrifice before the Lord.  "My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God will not despise. (Psalm 51:17)"  David wrote those words after his friend Nathan confronted him about his sin of adultery.  David knew that the brokenness in him was a sacrifice before the Lord because he knew that repentance had to be apart of the process of being broken---one must have brokenness---a soft heart--- to bring them to their knees to repent.  

As I reflect on this week.  Holy Week.  Passover.  I am reminded of the ultimate brokenness in history.  The ultimate softhearted vessel to ever walk this earth.  The ultimate poured out sacrifice of all time.  The only sacrifice that means anything for me.  for you.  Jesus.  "Mercy has a cost.  Someone must be broken in order for someone else to be fed. (Interrupted by Jen Hatmaker)"  Someone had to die in order for me to hear this message of deliverance.  And that someone was a man.  A man who knew no sin, but became that so that I may be with Him forever.  You see, Jesus, knew what had to be done.  He was a willing sacrifice.  "(Jesus) laid His own life down at the appointed time--not under coercion or constraint, not because His reckless message finally caught up with Him.  Jesus assured us that every time it seemed He was being forced against His will, He wasn't.  He was choosing that. (Interrupted by Jen Hatmaker)"  I love this quote.  I love that I serve a God that has no surprises.  I love that Jesus' work here didn't just finally catch up with Him and while He was eating Passover with His closest friends He was interrupted by men to arrest Him.  No---He knew.  Every minute.  It was planned.  It was done before it was done.  That is how He rolls.  He always fulfills what He promises.  And for this---I am rendered speechless.  I am speechless for this softhearted vessel that poured His brokenness out so that I might be called His daughter.  Adopted into His family.  Handed an inheritance that I did nothing to earn, and I can do nothing to keep.  It is there---being held out in the hands of the One who went willingly.  It was costly.  It was painful.  But He knew that in order for me to be fed, someone needed to be broken.  And He said, "Me!"  (long breath out)

I pray that as you walk through this weekend you have a moment amidst all of the hub bub that can come and you reflect on this softhearted vessel.  The one who said, "Me.  I will be the one to be broken so that they can be fed.  Send me."  It is a love that we cannot gain because it is a love that is just right there.  Being held out.  It has been done.  It is finished.  The vessel has been poured out.  Receive it anew this weekend.  

1 comment:

  1. beautiful, suzanne. thank you for these words ... walking into this weekend poured out before Him. thankful for His sacrifice and speechless because I do not deserve it. love you!

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