Broken Down Beauty

Guiding Prayer For Our Season of Fasting: 

Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom,the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Myself in Truth

Holy God, in the hurriedness of my day, may I not become numb to the world around me. Amen 

Nurtured and Nurturing 

Holy God, you send your one and only son, to be broken for us.  In our hurriedness as families help us to recognize the brokeness in those who live under the same roof. Where there is hurting, may we be your healing balm. Amen

The Gathered

Gathering God, as we come together, let us not be distracted by one another, but rather lead us as your people to the lost, the rejected and the hurting. May we make room at the table for Zaccheus and Mary Magdalene.  Amen

Challenge

Pray a purging prayer that your eyes might be opened to see the world through the lens of Christ.

Broken Down Beauty

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. 

Psalm 51:17

29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 Jesus took up the question and said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. 34 He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’

36 “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”

37 “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said.

Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.” Luke 10:29-37

The statue of Liberty was one the verge of being just a dream in 1884. Both France and the United States were having trouble financing the joint symbol of freedom and friendship but in 1884 it was finally on its way to America.

In transit, from France the Statue of Liberty was reduced to 350 individual pieces and packed in 214 crates. The Statue was re-assembled on her new pedestal in four months time.  Can you imagine the fear and anxiety that Sculptor Frederic Auguste Barthold must have felt as he watched his beautiful creation being taken apart and broken down into tiny pieces compared to the sculpture as a whole?  It had to be broken down to be rebuilt in the full beauty that it would be on the ornate pedestal that the Americans had built for her to stand upon.

In faith, sometimes we must broken down, humbled, in order to become the creation of God that we are truly meant to be.  We must become less so that Christ can become more in our lives.

What humbles you?  What makes you slow down and recognize the beauty and tragedy of God’s creation around you?  Who is your neighbor?

Today, I challenge you to pray a purging prayer if you dare. Pray that God might slow you down enough to recognize the need around you. Pray that you might be humbled as Christ was humbled so that a world in need might know salvation.  Pray that the scales of routine, numbness and ambivalence might fall away in order that we may see ourselves and the world anew…with the compassion that Christ calls us to.