The more I tried to hold it together, the more my life fell apart. Cherished idols were stripped away and my heart fractured in two. For three years, I refused healing. I didn’t know what to do for a broken heart, then I realized Jesus was asking me the same question he asked the man at the pool,

Do you want to get well?

Duh. We act stupid sometimes, don’t we? Personally, I was looking in the wrong place for the wrong miracle; begging God to heal someone else while sitting helpless in a puddle of my own brokenness. It’s been a long time.

John 5:6, “When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, He said to him, ‘Do you want to get well?'” HCSB

Defining Moments

Just because it’s been a long time doesn’t mean change is impossible, but it’s tempting to get comfortable in our sickness and let it become our identity. We wear labels as if they are permanently sewn into our lives. While we want different circumstances, Jesus wants a different heart. He’s there to make us well, but He waits to see if we want it. And if we believe in His power to do it.

Mark 9:23, “What do you mean, ‘If I can?’ Jesus asked. ‘Anything is possible if a person believes.'” NLT

Anything and If

I wanted my anything to be about someone else, but Jesus wants me to believe possibilities about myself. It is possible to heal from a broken heart and anything, if I let Him do His job. I quit carrying around the pieces looking for glue and turned to the One who makes all things new. I let Jesus do the job He described. He said He came to…

bring good news to the poor

heal the brokenhearted

proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners

proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of our God’s vengeance

to comfort all who mourn

give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, festive oil instead of mourning, splendid clothes instead of despair*

For so long, I wore ashes and ignored warning signs and symptoms of sickness.

“Jesus answered them ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.'” Luke 5:31 NIV

Is there a doctor in the house?

Sick people need a doctor. Someone once told me the mark of a good physician is the ability to recognize when someone is truly sick. Whenever my grandfather was sick, he never wanted to go to the doctor. As a result, a simple urinary tract infection nearly killed him. He ignored the liquid razor blades while microscopic invaders multiplied and marched through his renal tubules until they ramrodded straight into his blood stream. Quaking muscles vibrated the beads of sweat on his forehead, but my grandfather was as stubborn as he was sick.

“You need to go to the doctor.”

He responded, “No, he will put me in the hospital.” Yeah, Pa-Pa, that’s what they do with sick people; people who ignore warning signs until the microbes outnumber the white blood cells and need intensive care. What he needed was antibiotics; what he didn’t understand was that hospitalization was avoidable with early intervention. But it was too late and he looked determined to die. Though I’m guilty too,

I’d been warned he wouldn’t go, but I knew something they didn’t. He would do it for me. My friends speak wisdom and truth into my heart. Not wordly wisdom, but God’s truth straight from His word and the cracks are beginning to fill. My heart is not whole, some days I relapse in my brokenness, but I want to get well.

“My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God’s truth, don’t write them off. Go after them.” James 5:19 MSG

What to do for a broken heart

I suppose stubbornness is hereditary. There is a cure for my disease. No, not myasthenia gravis, but the other disease, my broken heart. The Great Physician knew I was really sick and offers Himself as the cure. I’m trusting Him with every detail. Are you? If not, turn to Him stat. He is able to heal your broken places too.

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