Brokenness

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Blog: Beans

            I made a pot of beans the other day. I did what my mom always does: wash beans, pick out broken beans and tiny rocks that slip through the separating machine. I looked at my pile of broken beans. Why do I take then out, I wondered. That could have been one good bite. I thought of the hungry kids in the world who eat only a cup of rice a week and dig through garbage to find scarps thrown away. They wouldn't mind a bite of broken beans. Do I take them out just because my mom did it or is there a deeper reason? I did take out the tiny bean shaped rock. No one wants to crunch on that for obvious reasons.

            I applied this to my life and other situations I've seen. I don’t try to separate broken people from me. I try to ease their brokenness. Even a friend of mine recently said that was one of the gifts she sees in me. I've seen people cull the broken people from their life for various reasons. They think they are justified in doing so.

            But, think this way: Jesus never separated me because I was broken and in sin. He didn't separate the woman at the well or call her a whore. He took on my sin and yours and the world’s to become sin in my place(2 Cor 5:21). He is always ready to receive me, sins and all, back to him. Separation from God is our choice. He wants us with him.

            So, I put the broken beans back in my pot. As for the rock, Jesus did not come to condemn the person, just the rocks (sin) in my life. God works in me through the Holy Spirit to help me realize I need to remove the rocks in my life. Leaving them there hurts me and others, too.

            Embrace broken people, but don’t embrace their faults. Guide them, accept them, love them, forgive them—Just like Jesus did for you.