Finding Peace Among The Broken Pieces

When you are broken into a million pieces, which piece do you hold onto? We all know it hurts to have your heart broken. Maybe a close friend betrayed your trust or let you down when you needed them most. Or maybe you have that awful feeling in your gut that the person you love just doesn't love you back. When our hearts are broken, we limp along, wondering how we ended up here and if we'll ever make it to the other side of the pain. And perhaps worst of all, we feel an emptiness that the broken pieces can’t seem to fill. What are the broken pieces?

The Piece Called Rejection - In ways big and small, we are all snubbed every day of our lives. We can't possibly like everyone who likes us or join every group that would have us as a member, so we constantly let others down, too. And yet, when it happens to us, we tend to take it very personally and, often enough, very hard. When someone you love hurts you, it is so hard to not feel the deepest pain and betrayal. You may feel deceived, heartbroken, foolish or simply scared. Depending on how long you have known this loved one, the hurt may be fleeting, or it could be a lifelong lesson that you are going to need to learn from. Psalms 34:17-20 says, “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.” This is the “The peace of deliverance.”

The Piece Called Betrayal-. Betrayal is probably the most devastating loss a person can experience. You must first experience trust in the betrayer, in order to be betrayed. It is fairly impossible for you to be betrayed if you did not trust the individual in the first place. Betrayal is when someone you trust lies to you, cheats on you, abuses you, or hurts you by putting their own self-interest first. Proverbs 19:5 says, “A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape.” Just as God forgives us for betraying Him, we must forgive those “who trespass against us.” Your fellowship with God flows freely when you are willing to forgive but becomes blocked by your unforgiving spirit. “This is the peace of forgiveness.” Let go and let God!

The Piece Called Abandonment- When we think about abandonment, we generally think about being left by someone. But abandonment is about leaving someone we are responsible for – a child or an old or sick person who cannot take care of themselves and whom we have agreed to take care of. As a healthy adult, another adult can leave you, but they cannot abandon you, since they likely have not agreed to be responsible for you. It might seem strange to you, but, as a healthy adult, when you feel abandoned by someone, it is not actually about them. It is about having abandoned yourself. Most people don't think about how they abandon themselves because they don't recognize that they are responsible for themselves – physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially, relationally and organizationally. Philippians 4:19 says, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. “This is the peace that comes with favor.”

I don't know what your heartbreak looks like—if you're barely holding the fragile pieces together or if everything has shattered in so many places you don't even know where to begin. This isn't a road we would have chosen, but along the way, we cling to the hope that God just may redeem this heartbreak and, in the process, give us glimpses into who He is.

When you feel like your heart is broken beyond repair, remember that you are uniquely poised, at this very moment, to share an intimate part of God's character. It's the place of the broken heart, it's sacred ground, it’s the peace that surpasses all understanding.