Born with a Broken Heart
He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds. Psalm 147:3 NASB
Brokenhearted – How are you doing today? Things going “fine,” like we always say no matter what’s really happening? Today I am in South Africa (God willing), confronting my own life traumas. A history of a broken heart. And not just mine. There are plenty of people on my radar who were brokenhearted because of choices I made. Maybe that’s why the Blues speak so deeply to me. Of course, life changes. Things are different than they used to be. “Don’t weep for me, Argentina” is a pretty good song too. But brokenhearted doesn’t mean hopeless. In fact, didn’t Heschel once say that despair is forbidden?
“The difference between the two kinds of men is that the bad one may undergo a spiritual awakening and do penance, whereas there is no hope for the self-styled tzadik. It will never occur to him to be contrite.”[1] Brokenhearted is a description of movement toward recovery. Self-confident spirituality is not.
“Wait! Aren’t we supposed to be confident? Shouldn’t we discover strength in our deepening spirituality?” Ah, but you missed the point. “Self-confident spirituality” relies on self, not on God. True spirituality is always tinged with a bit of a broken heart. Why? Because true spirituality confronts a very broken world, a world filled with things that certainly break God’s heart, and those things affect us even when life for us at this moment is good. Yeshua wasn’t having a terrible day when he wept over Jerusalem. He was experiencing the broken heart of YHVH. If your life seems to be filled with nothing but clouds with silver linings, maybe you are avoiding confrontation with a weeping God.
The Hebrew term, shabar, is most often used with God as the subject, but most of the time it isn’t about God weeping. It’s about God bringing shattering punishment or judgment. We have to add the word lev to arrive at “broken heart.” shevure lev—the shattered heart. An inner state of collapse that comes about when we confront our sins or when we confront the consequences of Sin in general. The disruption of harmony that affects everything. That’s why brokenhearted people come to God with tears. And that’s why He hears them. The common language of creation is pain.
There’s one more conclusion to draw from God’s promise to hear the brokenhearted. Avoiding pain is the equivalent of refusing to visit the doctor. God heals those who hurt. If you won’t let yourself hurt, how do you expect to be healed? The purpose of pain is proleptic.
Topical Index: brokenhearted, shevure lev, pain, healing, Psalm 147:3
[1] Abraham Heschel, A Passion for Truth, p. 68.
It is true that hurting people hurt people, and all of creation, too. I am becoming convinced that the majority of sin is sin because it is some sort of improper response to pain. The years I was convinced that it was all up to me, and to the extent that I fall back into that mindset, I had/have a wrong relationship with pain. I have also spent decades trying to figure out how to deal with people who are in deep pain, too. This is acute as well as chronic pain. Me, too. I never hurt worse than the years I suffered from depression and fear, which is, essentially, pain in the brain. Pain screams: “fix me!” And we are created to want to. But we have to become willing to consider that if pain is information about something that is broken, then we have to become willing to fix the brokenness more than we want to fix the pain. There is a difference.
Pain is information about relationship. There is relationship with God, others, myself (that would include my own physical health) and the cosmos, too. If pleasure exists to let me and all of creation know when and where we are plugged in, then pain is there to show us where we are not. This is a plug problem, not a nerve problem. How we respond to pain, then, is a measure of righteousness or sin to the extent that we learn that pain is telling us where the breaks in the lines are. I am slowly learning that I must tune my ear to not only pain that screams, but also pain that is easy to mask, for the easier it is to mask pain, the easier it is to turn a deaf ear to my responsibility in this broken world. People who have made a decision to avoid pain at all costs IN THE FLESH (yetzer ha’ra) may well have decided to avoid responsibility, too, for the flesh, being already broken, needs information about why it is not having a good day more than it needs a good day. Sin is avoiding this responsibility to fix the break, as well as the break itself. All of a sudden, the single biggest reason we seek altered states of reality – addictions – (which are all forms of avoiding the painful present) looks like it may be the biggest sin of all. If God is said to “whisper to us in our pleasures, speak to us in our conscience, and shout to us in our pains” (C.S. Lewis) then trying to avoid pain, or at least have an improper relationship with it, may be the equivalent of sticking our fingers in our ears and singing “la la la” whenever He is yelling. Problem of pain, indeed!
When I send pain underground, so to speak, I still hurt, and in those places, I may become part of the problem, if I am not careful, for hurt that we do not take responsibility for, we tend to pass on in some way. Part of what I do is take care of chronically ill people. In my experience, I have yet to meet one who is not suffering from a broken heart, but to the extent that they are afraid to go look at that aspect of their lives, I have seen that they are willing instead to have improper relationships with pain, whether depressive or physical. In those places, everything and everyone around them is drawn in to their pain, too. They tend to isolate in an effort to avoid having these improper relationships, but that makes it worse (I, of course, did all this stuff, too). They also seek pain relief of all kinds.
Paul lists pharmakiea as a sin, for in his day it was recognized that the occult was a large part of the drug culture. In this Cartesian duality we live in, however, it may be harder for us to see this, but avoidance of pain involves numbing at all levels of the nephesh, and Paul says that occluding reality (pharmakeia) is a sin. This has given me long pause. Compassion calls for the relief of pain, and compassionate medicine seeks to do just that, and it is not wrong to seek it, but I want to ask, if we went back and reworked the Cartesian response to reality, and recognized the whole nephesh in this search, could we be in a better position to actually cure that pain? I have spent a lot of time in this place. It is starting to look a good deal different than it used to. Curing the problem may look quite different than just avoiding it, burying it or asking society as a whole to bear it for us. This would be that pharmakiea, which is occlusion of the real problem, for what we bury or avoid, we are going to pass on, and the break will continue to worsen.
Miss Hayes you caused me to think of what I’m hearing a lot about today and that behavior modification. Many Christians are being caught up in this and their life becomes a shambles because it must be Christ in US he does the work. When I was 1st beginning to walk with a strong Foundation my family and I focused on Zechariah 9.12 which in one version reads return to your Fortress you prisoners of Hope even now I announced that I will restore twice as much to you going up to verse 11 as for you because of the blood of my Covenant with you I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit everything has its purpose under the sun. Ecclesiastes we can never give up for that would be a sin . Which talked about a ray of Hope. This is more than just Standing on the Promises. I think it has a lot to do with foundational security. Thinking of the comparisons of the misunderstandings when Messiah speaks to Israel was it Israel the nation or Israel the people personal or group orientated many times understanding the difference between you singular and you plural make a whole lot of difference. We are part of a whole but each part is uniquely connected. Isn’t the body of Messiah this way each one building up one another looking unto the head which is Christ. Closing thought unless a grain of wheat dies and falls into the ground it cannot bear new fruit tied with pruning unless the dead branches are cut off they harm the growth all together.
Brother Brett, I really like your thought process. Yes, my chronically ill people were so many times sucked into various forms of behavior modification, including meditative practices and the use of regimens, repetitive practices, and alternative methods of pain modification that were just so much more psyching out or physical numbing stuff. Anything that does not put God on the throne is occultic in that it masks reality, and pain can be a terrible occluding god. Anything that, in effect, turns the reins over to pain, including the pain of conscience (which behavior modification seeks to remedy in the flesh) takes God off the throne. Addictions do this, too, for they, too, are behavior modification. I think of it as perverting the natural feed back loops of nature and body that are there to help us respond correctly to information. Behavior and physical response, both, are not causes, nor can they replace causitives. Seeking to modify them, then, is like just shutting the barn door after the cows got out. Behavior, along with bodily response, are alike fruits, or, results, of the heart, ultimately, for the body is a mirror of the mind which is a mirror of the intent of the heart. Everything else is just more “thousands of rams, or ten thousand rivers of oil” (Micah 6:7) besides.
Many decades ago I had been a fairly heavy smoker for more than half my young life. When my wife became pregnant with our first child she quit smoking and drinking alcohol completely. To support her decision I agreed to quit when she brought the baby home. When the great day came I was told in no uncertain terms to quit. I tried to plead it was only moral support for her. No way. Quit! Cold turkey. It was not fun or easy but my ezer kenegdo was right (as usual) and smoothed the way.
I have never used illegal substances and very seldom use any drugs unless they are the type for anti-biotic use or such as vitamin supplement. I lived for some months in SF and LA in 1960 and somehow I escaped untouched. I will even allow procedures to be done without anaesthetics and have three times watched doctors do their work. How and why I can do this I have no idea but it can be done. I am sure there is support from somewhere for some reason I cannot explain and I probably would not be alive today were it otherwise.
Join the discussion…and they will be called the repairers of the breach, the rebuilders of the ancient ruins…….
Thank you Robert easy words to understand crisp and clear. I’ve been reading about being made in the image of God from Genesis and created was connected to making idols bad business nothing absolutely nothing is to be associated with his image even the Unspeakable name he alone is held in highest regard do not only have the faith in God but have the faith of God who spoke things into being by his words only God he alone is worthy to be praised the do The explosive power of God through faith in his presence alone. For we pulldown every evil imagination that exalts itself against the nature of God for we are more than conquerors to him who called us. Back to Genesis take the Earth and subdue it. Powerful the original calling to Adam not to get too lofty in thought but simply humbling in our submission to carry out his task through us . Who is man that he would consider us ? ❗ become holy for the Lord your God is holy selah
Thank you Dr Moen, for this encouraging word. I have been walking through a season of a shattered heart. Sometimes I need reminding that it’s okay to hurt and not hide. Blessings!
Heather I’m not trying to heal everyone or show compassion to everyone on this post but I was just thinking. Earlier I wanted to mention something about the New England forecast. See if this is appropriate? Lately even though it is early spring we up in New England in the North are getting another Nor’easter snow wind ice but wait the flowers are showing will be smothered and frost bit. Yes this is true but growing up in this region the flowers continue to bloom although we may lose some it helps us to be more grateful for the for the beauty that comes through. Please pray for us we are going to funeral and a burial then our Shabbat services are on Saturday we will survive but it seems devastating we’ve lost three prayer services three Shabbat services and looks like another one more of each the underground believers know where their strength comes from our strength comes from the Lord maker of heaven and Earth Hallelujah thank you for your openness Heather I hope mine helps you and others shalom ?
In my early thirties after 20 minutes or more of lementing my woes to my 90 year old Aunt Bernice Haas she says “you know Mark you only get the truble you need” Ouch that hurt just where I needed it to. Here I was a young man leaning on an old (but very wise woman). Our brokenness causes us to turn in or turn out. Thank YAHWEH he can be found in both places if we really want Him…With him comes the light that purifies. Thanks for so cleanly exposing the Beast Skip. Read through it twice already and am now passing it on…