~is a Christian.
The other day,
in a pile of random things I can't tolerate to toss,
I found this treasure.
(click to enlarge, you'll want to read this,
maybe more than once)
Psalm 51:17
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.
Forgot the broken heart of a romance movie,
brokenness for a believer is much different.
In fact, it's almost the opposite.
Our hearts are romantically broken
when someone we love forsakes us.
Our hearts are spiritually broken
when the God who loves us draws near,
but His holy presence causes conviction.
Our heart is broken when we see our sin
in light of His goodness, and repent.
Back in the day before
computers,
email,
Internet,
Facebook,
blogging,
cell phones,
texting, Tweeting
and all the other modern ways of passing on a message,
an older friend of ours, John,
typed up encouraging excerpts from Christian books, poems,
devotionals and Bible study notes to pass around.
The above well-loved pieces of paper
was one of his offerings of encouragement.
About ten years ago, he gave us his cherished typewriter.
The original receipt is still tucked away in the instruction manual.
Since minimum wage was only $.75 in 1952,
his source of spiritual encouragement wasn't cheap.
It was more like an eternal investment.
My kids loved using it to type up ransom notes,
after kidnapping each other's stuffed animals,
but it always represented spiritual encouragement to me.
Someday, our Internet trail will leave behind memories,
pictures, thoughts, journals, Tweets, status updates and blogs.
Hopefully, our trail will be littered with
broken pieces of self and
marked with this message of hope for those walking behind~
Psalm 34:18
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
Because, ya' know,
a Christian is the only thing that gets better when
broken.
I love that excerpt and saved it. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteYou are such a Sweetheart with such a sweet heart. Thanks Mindy - beautiful truths?
ReplyDeleteThis writing that I received from John has made a tremendous impact on my life. It has put things into perspective on more than one occassion and I still carry the original folded copy that I recevied from him. A couple of weeks ago, I went on-line and got a copy for the ladies coming as we were talking about pride and humility. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWow! Thanks for sharing this!
ReplyDelete