The Only Thing That Gets Better When Broken~

~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.