Raw.. Broken.

Raw.. That’s an interesting word.. I honestly think of meat. Raw meat. Untreated. Taken in the state it came. To us it’s unusable without our own intervention of some sort of heating element and a few spices, ha. But, I think that's how I feel when I am at my lowest. I feel completely raw with nothing to hide behind and nothing to cover myself with. Bare, cold, and exposed. But we must go to God with a willingness to be raw, to expose ourselves for what we are with our flaws and imperfections and embrace our brokenness, because until we do that we will not truly take joy in that communion with the Holy Spirit. Not to say that God won’t use us, because I believe God uses us in spite of ourselves and where our heart is. But, that we will be shielding our hearts from experiencing the joy of God’s work with this black shawl of our fears and failures. We are insecure in our brokenness so we try to cover ourselves, and cover our exposed hearts because of our shame.

Just as Adam and Eve felt shame after they sinned because they were naked, we feel shameful about the state of our hearts and in an emotional or spiritual state we feel naked. So we clothe ourselves with the things of the world, the sinful fig leaves in our fallen world. We hide our hearts from not only each other but from our heavenly Father, even though He already sees us, and sees through our thin disguise. He knows we are broken and He knows we need Him. And it is in this state of being broken that He is so close to us. Psalm 34:18 says, “The Lord is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Our brokenness is not something to run from or be ashamed of. It’s something to embrace and place at Christ’s feet every day we make the choice to open up our eyes in the morning and live.