Feel the brokenness in your soul. Let it break. Let it break without fear that you will be rendered fractured, deemed worthless, and tossed away. You have seen that happen time and time again. Something breaks. Its owner throws it in the garbage and replaces it with a new one. Or on other occasions, the owner removes it from view and stores it in the garage with intent to fix it when there is time, when there is need. There it becomes forgotten. Abandoned.

You have seen it with people. You have watched physical bodies break down. Those about them, those who have loved and cared for them, turn and set them aside as broken, worthless, deemed too broken to fix, too damaged to care for. Abandoned.

Then you have seen the shredding of souls – shredded by judgment, hatred and grief. You have seen imperfections magnified until they overtake and spread like cancer throughout a body. You have seen brokenness which hardens the heart and makes the soul grow calloused. Abandoned.

Feel the brokenness you have feared. As your heart has been speared and the tenderness of your wounds torched, you have feared that you would be labeled unworthy of repair as you lay broken and unable to arise in protest. Fear has gripped you, saying surely you will be cast aside, stored in the garage and forgotten. So you have struggled to keep the brokenness hidden.

Yet the band aids, the glue, the costumes – they do not camouflage the hurt and the pain. They do not heal. Remove the bandages and

expose what is broken; expose your soul. Let the fresh air of my spirit pass over and touch it, that you may begin to heal. This is the beginning of health, of wholeness. This is the impetus to restore dignity and truth. It is that which you have hoped for.

Cry. Tumble to the ground and cry out. Let it come up from the unseen corners of your soul, from all the force that has tried to hold brokenness in check. Cry out because it is hidden no more. Healing has begun. Restoration is yours. The myrrh, the balm, the ointment of refreshing is come upon you, and you can let go, be seen, and trust. You can laugh and cry, and talk of all that has been and all that will be.

Then will you say with your lips, “I called unto God and he heard me. He picked me up when I was fallen. He healed all the broken parts and restored my soul. He never abandoned me.”

from Joy Unfolding: Messages for the Guarded Heart