I spotted him from twenty yards back, perched against the lonely sidewalk. His arms and legs were crossed and his back was hunched against the stop sign. Wrapped up in the loveliness of our late night ride, we cruised past him as brokenness swept over us. We both felt it and couldn’t pretend we didn’t. I caught my husband’s eye as he asked the unspoken question on my mind. “Should we go back?”
We shook his hand, awkwardly brushed knuckles and introduced ourselves. His name was Luke and he reeked of alcohol. We asked if he was alright and he assured us he was – that he was just chillin’, waiting the buzz away before his shift at La Morena Market. He told us his story – the Cliffnotes version and the themes weren’t surprising: poverty, abuse, an absent father, a mom on drugs. We listened and casually snuck in a verse or other word of encouragement. Twenty minutes later, we prayed for him, brushed knuckles less awkwardly than the first time and rode home as hope lingered.
Too often I pass brokenness by as if I’m trying to fool myself it’s not there while it’s screaming behind saddened eyes and false smiles, wanting so bad to be found out.
Girls, do you ever just want the ugliness and mess in your life to be unveiled? To just spill it before someone who will actually care and be strong enough to make it better? “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16).”
Is it the ache of a deep regret? A broken relationship? Depression? The daily struggle of an eating disorder or debilitating insecurity? No matter what pain or sadness or shortcoming or sickness is infiltrating your life, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).”
God does not pass your brokenness by and let us follow his lead. He has sent us “to bind the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness from the prisoners (Isaiah 61:1).”
-Allie Marie Smith
