{all the king's horses and all the king's men} now.

You know the nursery rhyme. 

That poor little Humpty Dumpty fell off a wall,

and the best and the brightest in all the land couldn't fix him. 

He was broken...

in a not good way.

You and I have been there. 

Broken. In a not good way.

Not broken in a "God, break my heart for what breaks Yours" way.

That's broken in a good way. 

This is the opposite.

It's when you find yourself holding a bag...

no dragging a bag...

of emotions that you neither want nor desire.

When the anger, disappointment, and confusion 

have dried up a part of you?

You are broken. In a not good way.

It's when you feel like you can't give another piece of your day away,

of you away,

not five more minutes,

because your cup runneth over. 

All over the floor. And under the door. And down the front steps. 

And into the street.

You are broken. In a not good way.

It's when you feel you can't try 

for the hope-filled thing that dances in the distance. 

The thing you really want the most right now. 

When your soul whispers 

and you'd like to obey and run and dance and make art,

but you are afraid. So very afraid.

You are broken. In a not good way.

What then?

You and I stop.

And sit. 

And, yes, weep if we need to.

At Jesus' feet.

In the midst of the stopping and the sitting, lift your head and look around.

You're seated in a circle of friends.

You see, Jesus doesn't hang out with the perfect people.

(There really aren't any of those, you know.) 

He hangs out with the beaten and outcast.

With the marginalized and the downtrodden.

With the broken.

You can find soul mates here in this circle of friends and followers.

You can find hope 

and peace

and victory.

Jesus came to make all things dried and cracked and chipped away, 

beaten up and beaten down,

and make them whole again.

And He will take what you bring

and make your cracked and broken pieces and places

into something

beautiful.

God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.

~John 3:17 The Message

Many blessings,

Deni