True You By Michelle DeRushaSample

Day Three: We Are Broken

Scripture: Luke 8:43-48

In the Gospel of Luke we are introduced to a woman who has suffered from incessant bleeding for twelve years. Desperate for a cure, she slips in between the throngs of people who have gathered for a glimpse of the one proclaimed to be the Messiah. She creeps up behind Jesus and discreetly touches the hem of his robe, hoping she will finally be healed. Jesus, feeling his power released, spins around, demanding to know who touched him. “When the woman realized that she couldn’t remain hidden,” Luke tells us, “she knelt trembling before him. In front of all the people, she blurted out her story—why she touched him and how at that same moment she was healed” (Luke 8:47 Message).

Read that bit again: “When the woman realized that she couldn’t remain hidden . . . she blurted out her story.” Why does the bleeding woman try to hide? Why does she want to remain unseen? Because she is ashamed of her condition, her brokenness. Rejected by society, she feels unworthy of love.

Like the bleeding woman, we, too, hide our worst selves, our shadow sides, from God. And why? Because, like Adam and Eve, we don’t trust God’s goodness. We don’t trust that he loves us enough to accept our whole flawed and broken selves. We don’t fully believe he has our best interests in mind. And so we hedge our bets. We reveal only parts of our story, bits and pieces of our true selves, keeping our worst fears and our deepest sins hidden, not only from ourselves but from the One who knows us best.

Fear and distrust prevent us from answering God’s invitation into intimacy and healing. Like the bleeding woman and Adam and Eve in the garden, we often only step out of hiding to tell our story when we are called out by God himself.

I don’t know what your shadow side is, but I do know this: you have one. We all do. There is undoubtedly something that, unless it’s acknowledged, will inhibit you from entering into intimate relationship with God. Maybe it’s lack of trust or need for control. Maybe the wounds from your past are a barrier between you and God. Maybe it’s something else entirely. Only you can identify your false self. Only you can answer God’s call to name your deepest brokenness, and only you can offer that brokenness up to God.

What is your reaction when you hear the word brokenness?