‘Brokenness’ is a term often spoken of in Christian circles in the context of suffering to provide comfort to hurting souls. Christian ministries set up to comfort and heal hurting people are aplenty. Christian bookstores are filled with books about healing and finding comfort. Counselling hurting people is a significant part of the ministry of a pastor.
Many Christian psychologists, counsellors, and therapists dedicate their entire careers, and lives to counselling hurting people in their service to God and their neighbours. Yet despite all that, many people, both Christians and non-Christians alike, just do not seem to be able to find healing. Some even spend their whole lives in therapy without seeming to make much, if any, progress at all.
Undoubtedly, people who dedicate their ministries, careers, and lives to helping hurting people do a noble work and should be respected. One major problem, however, is that the focus is often on comforting people, rather than removing the pain itself. What is inadequately addressed is the cause of pain. Comforting people without addressing the cause of pain is like applying a dressing to a wound on the body without first removing the shrapnel that is the cause of the pain – the pain still remains and is only soothed for a while.
Without a diagnosis of the cause of a pain based on a solid theological and philosophical understanding of the human condition, no person who is in pain can be healed. Yet, people who are hurting and genuinely seeking healing are blamed for being irresponsible, immature, or unspiritual for being unable to heal from their pain. People, however, cannot be blamed for doing so and being unable to progress in healing where the medicine they are given is based on a shallow, superficial, or faulty understanding of the human condition, in particular, the brokenness of the human condition.
Religious people often lack patience and compassion towards those who complain about suffering, especially those who have received everything they want in this life – all while pretending to show compassion for those who endure suffering. Such people are full of hypocrisy and false compassion, as well as false piety, and help no one by their moralising of those who are suffering.
They have a better understanding of human nature than the secular person, but what use is that if they have no patience and compassion towards those who endure suffering? Religious people are often exactly like Job’s three friends who merely blame his pain on his own sin, even harshly berating him for seeking comfort in the pain and denying that his suffering is not because of any sin he had committed.
They often blame the person for supposedly ‘lacking faith’, being ‘too proud’, or ‘wrongly desiring good, licit things’, claiming that they should stop desiring such things. In attempting to ‘comfort’ people, they often, at best, make trite statements that are unhelpful and inadequate, such as ‘just trust in God’ or ‘no good thing will He deny’. At worst, they make condescending, patronising, and downright insulting statements, such as ‘stop being so greedy’ to a person who is broken because of poverty.
Such statements demonstrate a lack of charity, compassion, and mercy towards the poor, and are the last thing any person who is suffering needs to hear. People are left feeling even more hurt, and in not few cases, it causes them to lose in faith in God because they receive the erroneous message that God does not love them or care for them.
Secular psychologists, counsellors, and therapists on the other hand, generally have more compassion towards those who complain about suffering, as this field often draws people who have suffered significant trauma in the past, inspiring them to pursue a career in this field. Owing to a lack of understanding of human nature, which can only be received by revelation from God, they often provide unsound, harmful advice to people who seek their help. People are often more damaged from seeking advice based on false doctrines, which though contain kernels of truth, are mixed with lies. This damage is the bondage of the soul, owing to heeding worldly, fleshly advice that holds people in even more bondage to the brokenness of the human condition.
To properly help people who endure pain in their suffering and broken because of it, one must have both compassion and patience as well as a sound, solid understanding of the human condition and human nature itself. Such an understanding can only come through divine revelation from God. In particular, an understanding about the root cause of brokenness of the human condition and its effects that make it extremely difficult to overcome, is necessary for helping people gain a breakthrough in not just enduring, but overcoming their brokenness and being fully liberated from their pain.
Sin as a Cause of Pain and Brokenness
The brokenness of the human condition is the direct result of the Fall. Brokenness is the state of not being the way one was created by God to be. It is the most immediate effect of the Fall, caused by humankind’s rebellion against God, resulting in its loss of communion with God. Wholeness in the human condition begins with being in perfect communion with God, united with God by love between God and humankind. However, the effects of the Fall go far beyond the loss of perfect communion with God. The effect of the Fall on human nature is its perversion, which once loved God perfectly, to becoming that which desires independence from God, which is the rejection of God. The once-perfect human nature became sinful, rebellious, and hostile towards God, as sin entered the world through Adam (Romans 5:12).
That the human nature is born in sin is itself part of the brokenness of the human condition. It is sin that is indwelling in the human personality, an innate part of human nature, that is a cause of pain leading to brokenness. We hurt ourselves by our own sin, holding ourselves to the bondage of the flesh and its desires. Yet, it is not necessarily always sin, nor sin alone, that causes pain in people and breaks them interiorly.
Much of the time, it is the state of the world that causes pain, as the story of Job demonstrates. That is why people who are suffering interior pain or enduring brokenness, as we all do to a certain extent, should not simply be blamed for their sin as is the tendency of some. Much of the cause of pain for many is external, and the result of others’ sins, rather than their own.
While sin may have caused their pain, either partly, or wholly, this is because of the sin nature of humankind which all are born with, without exception. Thus, one should, in charity and compassion, help the person who is broken to understand that sin is the cause of their pain, where it is partly or wholly caused by their sin, without blaming them personally. Blaming them personally will not help them, and in fact, cause them even greater pain, often in the form of resentment, further adding to their brokenness. Blaming them is also self-righteousness as we ourselves are all broken to some extent.
Very often, it is the sins of others that cause one great pain, leading to brokenness that can be unbearable. Such may be the betrayal of someone close, who one trusted, such as a friend, or it may be abuse at the hands of a parent or spouse. It may also be unjust treatment by an employer, government, or society in general, such as discrimination, oppression, or subjugation.
Whatever the external cause of brokenness is, the pain is often unbearable, and breeds in people much resentment, hatred, or rage, which is natural and understandable, but a vice, and ultimately, damaging to the person. Such people should be treated with understanding, not condemnation, as these vices are simply a natural reaction to wrong that has been done against them.
Sin, whether interior or exterior, that affects one, invariably causes pain, and leads to brokenness. Sin innate to the human nature brought about the brokenness of the human condition, which leads to more brokenness, a part of the cycle of sin in the human condition. Thus, a person without God is like a car which engine is damaged. It may be able to operate for a period of time but will eventually run down and no longer be able to function properly.
Likewise, a person without being in the state of grace, in communion with God, may be able to function as a relatively moral person, at least outwardly, committing no serious sin, and even thrive in their God-given purpose for a period of time, but he is nonetheless innately broken and eventually will be unable to function properly.
Even if he thrives in his purpose, such will invariably take a toll on him interiorly. This is evident in the many people who are successful in their careers but have many problems, such as addiction or depression. It is also why people often become more miserable, bitter, or resentful, as they become adults, not simply because of more responsibilities to take on, or more pressures in life, but because of interior pain resulting from sin, whether their own or others, that has been accumulated over time, sometimes to breaking point.
Pursuing Earthly, Temporal Things Leads Only to More Brokenness
Sin, whether that of oneself or others, is not only the cause of brokenness. There are many external factors owing to the state of the world, that cause brokenness, and not as a result of sin. Such causes are many, and include job loss, chronic unemployment, loss of a loved one, infertility, business failure, career failure, a broken marriage, disillusionment with a human leader, and missed opportunities or the perception of missed opportunities which one believe would have made one’s life better. These are the result of living in a fallen world, but not necessarily the direct result of one’s own sin or that of others. When one is faced with such circumstances, disappointment is natural.
Disappointment is sorrow over unfulfilled longings, desires, hopes, dreams, or expectations. One wanted something so deeply but did not attain it or had something one wanted but lost it. This causes great pain because the human heart was created by God to desire good things, and so when one does not receive the good things one desires, one feels sorrowful.
While sorrow is not per se a vice, or sin, worldly sorrow is a vice, not because sorrow is a vice per se, but because worldliness is a vice. Worldly sorrow is ordered towards satisfying one’s pleasures and is not rooted in glorifying God. Whereas godly sorrow is sorrowful over sin because it offends God, worldly sorrow is concerned about one’s own pleasures and desires that are not submitted towards God. Not only is worldly sorrow a vice, but such also hurts the person filled with worldly sorrow, and breaks the person interiorly, causing him to spiral into despair, depression, and even, in extreme cases, suicidal ideation or suicide.
Worldly sorrow is a very dangerous thing. It does not only draw a person away from God, further alienating him from God’s love, and the joy and peace He gives; it drives him to pursue the things of this world which only leads to even more unnecessary pain and suffering, piercing the person with all kinds of sorrows. As Saint Paul warned:
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
(1 Timothy 6:9-10)
Such riches do not just refer to money specifically as many Christians erroneously think it means. Nor does it just refer to money and material possessions, including houses and inheritance. Instead, riches refer to any kind of earthly security that one could attain in this earthly, temporal life. It can include education and careers, and even marriage and family where one pursues such for achieving earthly security to, for example, build generational wealth.
The pursuit of earthly security in any form at all is the pursuit of mammon. That is what Saint Paul meant by desiring or pursuing riches, and what Jesus meant by serving mammon when He said: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and [mammon]” (Matthew 6:24). The narrow definitions of ‘riches’ and ‘mammon’ which Christians often ascribe to the words of St Paul and Jesus demonstrate a spiritually inadequate and superficial understanding, and is patently wrong.
Many who will say on the Day of Judgment, “Lord, Lord”, only to be rejected by Christ, will be those who profess Christ, who dutifully went to church each Sunday, active in church ministry, did many outwardly righteous works, such as feeding the poor, healing, being involved in pro-life ministry, fighting to protect the institution of marriage and family from the onslaught by the homosexual movement, but whose hearts never truly loved Christ – and only loved Christ for what they could receive from Him like the rich young ruler (Matthew 7:22-24; Mark 10:17-27).
Such works were done only to receive from Christ things that they wanted for themselves and thought Christ would give, as their just reward, but never did they truly love Christ. Such people are the Christians who seem holy, godly, and sound in their doctrine, but are only focused on building up wealth for themselves, chasing the treasures, pleasures, comfort, and security that this world offers – and there are many such professing Christians. These are not the types who attend prosperity “gospel” churches who are under all kinds of unsound doctrine, but professing Christians who profess the fundamental tenets of the Faith and attend normal, sound churches.
When one pursues any earthly thing at all, and makes any earthly temporal thing, even good things, their security, that which one trusts in to attain joy and peace, this inevitably leads to a multitude of disappointments. Disappointment when one does not attain what one desires, leaving one’s desires, longings, dreams, or expectations unfulfilled, is difficult to endure, but it is often only for a season.
Most people do recover from disappointment, once their once-lost hope has been actualised, whether it be finally getting a new job after losing that much-needed job, getting that degree one desired, getting married as one had always wanted, or finally having that child so longed for. But where one had high hopes for something but did not actualise, or one had finally attained something one had so longed for, but lost it, one is plunged into further disappointment.
Life is indeed full of disappointments. Life is bittersweet. There are the good moments, and the bad moments, the sweet moments, and the bitter moments. Even if one’s bitter pools of disappointments are finally turned into sweet waters, that still does not mean one has attained true joy and peace in God.
One will feel a surge of happiness once one has achieved it, and sometimes, even sadness leaving one’s body, but such happiness will quickly fade away, only to be but a memory and nothing eternal, leaving one with a feeling of incompleteness, unfulfillment, and discontentment, and perhaps the realisation of the ephemerality of earthly happiness.
Disappointment is a bitter thing that is extremely difficult to endure, let alone overcome, and can lead to resentment and even rage. Disappointment wounds the heart, regardless of the cause. God designed the human heart to have good desires for good things, and so when those desires are left unfulfilled, pain results, because it goes against the way the God created humankind.
It is not only natural, but perfectly justified to desire that which is good, and so people who are disappointed or even resentful, bitter or angry, should not be condemned or blamed. Instead, they should be shown understanding and compassion because it is only natural to the human condition to feel that way.
Those who do not have such experiences are often people who have never endured any serious wounding, continual sufferings, excruciating affliction, or major disappointment, and so it is easy for such people to not feel any disappointment, resentment, or bitterness, until they face the same as those that they are so dismissive or judgmental towards.
Discontentment with God leads to Finding Contentment in Mammon
If disappointment is so painful, and seeking earthly security only leads to such, why then do people still do so? Why do people keep pursuing wealth, possessions, money, leisure, career success, romantic love or whatever else they chase after, despite knowing all too well the disappointment and despair that such things often bring? What is it that drives people to pursue earthly things, in seeking true joy and peace, despite knowing deep down inside that such things cannot ultimately bring complete satisfaction? The short answer is discontentment.
But what is this discontentment with? It is discontentment with God. This discontentment with God is what leads people to find contentment in mammon, even knowing intuitively, and also from experience, that chasing after any earthly temporal thing does not give true joy or peace which is perfect, complete, eternal, and ever-present.
Why are people, even multitudes of professing Christians, discontent with God, and content in mammon, despite knowing the disappointment and despair it brings? It is because of the fallen human condition, and the sinful nature of humankind which rejects God, for as the scriptures state:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
(Psalm 3:10-18)
This is the true portrait of the nature of humankind, one that not only does not seek God but finds the very idea of seeking God repugnant, and that is neither righteous nor good. In being unrighteous and evil by nature, people act wickedly towards one another, and are full of ‘curses and bitterness’ and causing others only ‘ruin and misery’. They also know not the ‘ways of peace’ because of their wickedness, but only contention, warring, and fighting.
The raises the question, why do they not know the ways of peace? They do not know peace not only because they are under the wrath of God, but also because they are alienated from God, having lost communion with He who not only gives peace, but is Peace.
To not know God is to not know peace, for peace is to be right with God. The reverse is also equally true, that to not know peace is to not know God, because a lack of peace in the heart indicates that one has not yet reached the level of unity with God in the spiritual life where one has attained an unshakeable peace, a steadfast stillness, and steady tranquillity, whereby nothing moves one’s passions, and one is completely unaffected by the things in this world that would normally shake a person and destroy their peace.
The absence of peace in a person’s heart, resulting from the sinful human nature, is what drives people to practise wickedness and evil. Such people will not only never find peace, but they will never find contentment which is rooted deep within the corrupted nature of humankind. They are always constantly discontented owing to their love of mammon, and when their pursuit of their own earthly security is frustrated, they are disappointed when it is a mere setback, despair when they face more disappointment and lose hope, and spiral into depression when they lose the strength to stay hopeful.
Who are these wicked, evil people that the scriptures speak about? You. As long as you are not fully submitted to God, you are a wicked, evil person. As long as I am not fully submitted to God and therefore in rebellion against God, I am also a wicked, evil person.
It is easy to point the finger at others as wicked and evil people for committing sins that you do not commit or have never committed. But as long as you are not fully dependent on God, and surrendered to Him, and in union with God, by love for God and others, you are also wicked and evil in the eyes of God, the same as those you disdain. For by not being fully submitted to God, you are rejecting God and His love, spitting in His face. To submit to God is to obey God, and to obey God is to love God.
For Jesus said plainly, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). To obey Jesus is to love God. Therefore, to not obey Jesus is to hate God. To obey God, one must be fully submitted to God. To not be fully submitted to God is to be in rebellion against God, as Adam and Eve rebelled when they ate the Fruit. Eve’s doubting of God’s commandment which led her to heed the devil’s sly deceitful whispers when she was tempted to by the serpent (Genesis 3:1), is itself to not be fully submitted to God, which is itself rebellion.
This leads to one very pressing question which is, why did Eve doubt God? She was in perfect communion with God until right before she ate the fruit. She was created perfect and had full comprehension of God’s command that Adam and Eve can eat any fruit in the Garden of Eden, except for fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil as indicated by her response to the serpent’s temptation (Genesis 3:2-3).
Thus, her fall into sin was not out of ignorance as is the case with post-Fall humankind as Saint Paul speaks about, owing to the fallen human condition and corrupted human nature (1 Timothy 1:13). Nor was it out of weakness in the flesh because Eve was created perfect. Eve doubted God, not because of ignorance or weakness, but completely in wilful rebellion against God, because of the ‘lust of the eyes’ (1 John 2:16):
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
(Genesis 3:6)
It is the lust of the eyes that is the beginning of discontentment in the human condition. Lust is inordinate desire that is not rightly ordered towards the object desired. The lust of the eyes specifically is the inordinate desire of the senses, the faculty of the human personality that perceives things through sensing. The lust of the eyes through the senses, perceives that certain things are good, and the corrupted flesh, which is the fallen human nature in its corporeal state, is stirred up and becomes filled with envy.
The flesh is stirred up to desire things to satisfy itself but can never be satisfied. This is because the operation of the flesh is innately one of lust, one that loves to satisfy lust, and cannot help but do so, owing to its rebellion against God (Romans 8:7-8). Once the lust of the flesh has been indulged, the pride of life springs forth from the iniquitous heart of each person, with self-satisfaction, having indulged itself, but is never truly satisfied, only ever wanting more.
Each and every single human being without exception has been guilty of, and still is guilty of the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and pride of life, as long as not fully submitted to God. Such is the essence of what sin is. The essence of sin is not the breaking of the commandments of God, such as the Ten Commandments, or harming, hurting, or offending people. Nor is even evil the essence of sin.
Sin is, in essence, independence from God, thereby rejecting Him and not finding contentment in Him. Evil is the result of sin, or the fruit of sin, not its essence. People commit evil because they sin by virtue of being independent of God, and not commit evil and leading to sin.
The sin nature of humankind, which very essence is sin itself, is the primary cause of brokenness in the human condition. Owing to its inability to overcome itself, specifically its sin, the human condition is not only broken from conception, but is perpetually broken as it sins, wallowing in its own sin, and not even realising its own brokenness, like a pig wallowing in the mud, not even realising its own wallowing.
Not only that, the sin nature loves its brokenness, in spite of the pain that its sin causes, because it is in bondage to sin. It loves its brokenness because it enables one to satisfy the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, and naturally thinks that it can find ways to soothe the pain caused by sin. It loves its brokenness, not because of the pain, for no one likes pain, but because its ‘love’ is actually lust, which the sin nature cannot help but seek to indulge in.
The vicious cycle of brokenness in the human condition begins with its innate brokenness caused by the Fall and perpetuates its own brokenness by its own sin. Humankind is indeed a helpless creature, helpless in its own sin, only capable of sinning, and hurting themselves and others. Despite its pride, humankind is much to be pitied!
Humankind is capable of all kinds of amazing feats, from producing great works of arts, flying to the moon, and making groundbreaking scientific discoveries, but it cannot overcome its own broken condition, its own sinful nature.
Overcoming Brokenness
Despite the state of the world, and that certain exterior factors cause brokenness in people owing to the pain caused, whether by the sins of others, or otherwise disappointment, and despite one’s own sinful nature, one can overcome all brokenness. One can be fully healed. One can be fully liberated from the pain. It is all absolutely possible, but several conditions must be satisfied.
First, one must receive divine revelation from God that is one is broken in one’s own sinful nature, and that there is nothing one can do about it in one’s own strength. No amount of good works can fix the brokenness that is innate to one’s own sin nature. Very often, God will allow others to reveal your own sinfulness to you as a mirror reflecting your true nature. This may be through their criticism of your behaviour, or their negative reactions towards your personality and character. Undoubtedly, this is a painful thing to endure, but often necessary for people to even realise that they are broken and cannot do anything about it.
Secondly, one must humble oneself and repent before God. This is also, undoubtedly, a painful thing to do, to humble oneself before God which the Adamic nature so despises but is absolutely necessary. Without humility, one will not receive the healing that one so desires and needs from God. One will not even see the need for healing if one is proud of heart.
Thirdly, one must grow spiritually which means to learn how to fully submit to God and surrender one’s whole self to His will. This is a long, and often painful process. When one has reached this stage in the spiritual life, one will, not probably, not possibly, and not potentially, but will, go through much testing from God, in all kinds of ways. This may be setbacks in one’s pursuits, such as in one’s education or career, delay in receiving something God does want to give one, but not right yet, or a painful loss, such as the loss of a job, a relationship, or a loved one.
The pain of brokenness lodged so deep within the soul can only be removed by God’s healing grace. Healing is part of God’s Salvation. While the healing process is often a painful one that requires much humility and courage in realising one’s brokenness and one’s helplessness, it is the only way to find liberation from one’s own sin nature, and ultimately peace and joy in God.
As CS Lewis once said, “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
Without pain, we would not even know how broken we are. Pain makes us aware of our true state: broken, miserable, dysfunctional, weak, pitiable, and helpless. It is a sign of God’s grace upon one because it is His way of driving us towards Him, in reconciling us to Him, and drawing us to greater unity with Him, despite having first rejected Him.
Otherwise, in our blissful ignorance, we would not even know the tragic state of our brokenness, and our alienation from God, and not even seeing the need to know God – the key to true joy and peace that can only be found in God and God alone.
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