Sometime when you’re feeling important;
Sometime when your ego ‘s in bloom;
Sometime when you take it for granted,
You’re the best qualified in the room:
Sometime when you feel that your going,
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow these simple instructions,
And see how they humble your soul.

Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to the wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining,
Is a measure of how much you’ll be missed.
You can splash all you wish when you enter,
You may stir up the water galore,
But stop, and you’ll find that in no time,
It looks quite the same as before.

The moral of this quaint example,
Is to do just the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself but remember,
There’s no indispensable man.

“Indispensable Man” by Saxon White Kessinger

I have heard it said that humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less. I like that definition. I believe it sums up the attitude we should have in our approach to life. No one likes to be around arrogant people. When our pride gets out of check, so our life gets out of check. In a world where everyone tries to play it cool and never show their frailty, we need to become broken. We need to be broken by God. Brokenness is something that true worship is birthed out of. It is the conception of purity and the birth of worship in one. So what is brokenness? My definition…being humbled to the point of complete surrender. What is humility then? To know that apart from Christ we are nothing, yet through Him we are everything. 

I believe God requires brokenness in order to bring us into an intimate relationship with Him. We have a selfish desire that the world feeds from birth. You do not need to look hard to see this. When we were babies we could not be independent so we needed to be pampered. It was all about us. When we were young we cried when we wanted something and guess what? We got it. When we became teenagers we tried to break the rules and do what we wanted to do (after all teenagers know everything, right?). “Mom and Dad just don’t understand,” we would say. Then later in life we independently tried to take care of ourselves by getting a job and finding true love. At some point we grow older. We try to maintain the kingdom we have built for ourselves. We buy the things we want to buy, and do the things we have always wanted to do. When we become too old to maintain, others take care of us. Our lives are built around “us” because we are the only ones we live with every minute of every day. So legitimately we are selfish by nature. We were not created to have a selfish lifestyle though, we were created to reflect God’s glory. But we have all sinned against God and turned toward our own selfishness.

Romans 3:23

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Question: Where does that leave us?

Answer: Full of sin and in need of grace.

Question: What does this have to do with brokenness?

Answer: Brokenness is the gateway to holiness.

Brokenness is how we come into the revelation of our purpose. God must break our selfishness in order to restore us back to the relationship He destined for us. The only way our will is going to be broken is through a revelation of the holiness of God. Not through enticing words, not through balancing the pros and cons, but through holy brokenness.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

When I came to you, brothers I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on man’s wisdom, but on God’s power.  

Only through the power of God can someone enter into a relationship with God. No one can talk someone into a real relationship with God. No one can persuade someone to give their life to God. It can only come through a true revelation of the Holy Spirit. A revelation of who we are and Who God is. Brokenness happens when we see our present existence in the light of His glorious truth. We see ourselves for who we really are just as Isaiah did:

Isaiah 6:1-5

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

We say, “Woe to me, I am a person of sin who lives in a sinful existence.” This is not just some religious state of mind, it is a holy revelation in our spirit of how much we are in need of God. This is so much more than not wanting to go to Hell. This is about a longing to be reconnected with the ultimate Creator. God wants to tear down everything that sets itself against His will in order to reveal His incomparable riches in Christ Jesus. He wants to break our sin nature and restore us back to who we were created to be.