FRACTURED & FALLING APART

A couple months ago, my husband fractured one of his fingers and shattered another when a heavy piece of equipment fell on them. A couple years ago, my son fractured his foot playing basketball.

Fractured. To me this word means something a little less than broken. Like it’s not quite broken, but it’s fractured. I wonder why doctors don’t use the term “broken” anymore. Instead they use “fractured.” According to the dictionary, a fracture is a break, a breach, a split. So it’s pretty much the same thing.

Fractured. Broken. Fragmented. Cracked.

You know, when I look around at my life, my relationships, my place of employment, my finances, my church, my neighborhood, my community—I see fractured. I see broken. I see fragmented. Some of the cracks run deep. Some, like dry and cracked skin, are even painful.

Sometimes God allows these fissures in us to get our attention, to draw us closer to Him, to admit we’re in need of a Savior. But sometimes the fractures are a result of our choices. We’ve chosen to be distant. We’ve chosen to be silent. We’ve chosen this when we should have chosen that. We’ve chosen to be lone rangers when we should have chosen to ask for help.

The result is the same, however—fractured, broken, fragmented, cracked.

When I feel as though many facets of my world are fractured, it breaks me. My heart feels as fractured as the things around me. And it causes me to desperately want to fix it all. It makes me want to act, try harder, work more, say the right things, do the right things, bring lasting change, and heal the world.

But then, when my human nature kicks into overdrive, I hear God whisper, “Rest in Me…Wait on Me…Trust in Me.” If only it were that easy…

Hear the prayer of King David from Psalm 60:2 (NIV): “You have shaken the land and torn it open; mend its fractures, for it is quaking.”  This prayer is a communal lament that was thought to have been written after a lost battle. God’s Word Translation renders it this way: “You have made the land quake. You have split it wide open. Heal the cracks in it because it is falling apart.”

David was a guy who knew fractured. He knew broken. He knew fragmented. But he also knew where to turn when his cracks ran deep.

This has been my prayer this week: “…heal the cracks in [me] because [I am] falling apart.” 

Do you have any cracks in you? Are there parts of your world that are fractured or broken? Trying harder and working more won’t heal the heaviness. Saying or doing the right thing won’t fix the fragmented.

But there is One who can. He’s the one King David called on in Psalm 60.

The very last verse in Psalm 60 says, “With God we will gain the victory…” The victory may not equate to fixing the fracture we face. It may not be the victory we hope for. It may be a moral victory, a spiritual victory, an emotional victory, or simply a step in the right direction. But we gotta remember—the Father we call on is greater than the fractures.

Mend my fractures.
Heal my cracks.
Repair my breaches.