Brokenness

“Is your arm hurting?” she asks. Yes. The broken bone near my shoulder is healing. Slowly. 

It’s 2015 and Manga is prepping me for physical therapy at a hospital in Malaysia. “Be happy!” she says. “Think positive thoughts. Then you will not be hurting.”

I smile. She’s friendly. Gregarious. Her speech and ways and dress make me feel at home. 

South Asian home. 

Do you know Jesus?

In the course of our conversation, I confess. “Sometimes I can’t produce happy thoughts on my own, Manga. That’s why I’m thankful to be a follower of Jesus. He gives me peace and strength and courage. Do you know of Jesus?”

Yes, she’s heard of Him. Her family follows a variety of gods. It’s their tradition.

“They are all the same,” she says. “Your God, my gods.”

A familiar response. 

Fracture

I begin to ask about her family. Her life. 

And in the telling, there it is. Brokenness.

The positive thinking mantra slips. Shifts. Reveals the fracture in her heart. 

Separation and hurt. 

Estrangement from a beloved daughter. 

The Three Circles

Several years ago Jimmy Scroggins spoke at a gathering of overseas workers.  He shared the Three Circles diagram. And explained how the Lord led him to design it. 

A simple explanation of the gospel. Speaking to the brokenness he was seeing in those he ministered among. 

A visual of sin’s effect

He noted how each one struggles with their own sin problem. But often their brokenness is compounded by the sin of others against them. 

The person abused as a child. The battered partner or spouse. The one neglected and abandoned.

I took copious notes as he spoke.

The “Brokenness” circle felt like a missing piece I’d been looking for in sharing the gospel. A visual of the effect sin has on the world.

God’s Design

A door opens as Manga tells me her grief. I listen. 

Eventually I share that God sees her. He understands her pain. 

We look at the first circle as I draw it on a scrap piece of paper. God’s Design. God created the world and people. Everything was perfect. 

No pain. No loss. No chasm in relationship.

Sin enters the world

But He gave man and woman the ability to choose. And when they chose to disobey, sin entered this perfect design. I draw sin on the diagram.

People have been sinning ever since. 

We never had to learn how to disobey, did we? Neither did our children. She nods. 

Brokenness

We talk about the effect this sin has had all over the world. I draw the second circle. Brokenness.

We see it in every family, every culture, every country, every people. In our own hearts.

She agrees. “Everywhere. So many problems.” It makes sense.

We try to fix it.  But then it’s broken. Again.

Gospel

There’s so much darkness and pain. That’s why we need good news. Of Jesus. 

God so loved the world—He so loved you, Mangga, and your daughter—that He sent His Son Jesus to become the sacrifice for our sins.

I draw a cross in the third circle. 

When Jesus died on the cross He was taking the sin of the world upon Himself. Dying in our place.

You know Easter? We celebrate because Jesus didn’t stay in the grave. He was resurrected from the dead. He conquered sin and death.  

Repent and believe

When we confess and turn from our sin and believe this good news, we too can know true life for ever. He heals our brokenness.

She listens. Curious. But I’m not sure she hears.  

There’s a pause. Quietness.

Then these things of eternity give way to the immediate pain. “I don’t know if she will ever come back.” 

The Father watches

Her words bring to mind the father in Jesus’ parable. Waiting for the return of his prodigal son. Not knowing if he will ever come back.

But he watches. Keeping an eye on the road.

When the son comes to the end of himself and heads home humble and repentant, the father sees him. While he’s still a long way off. 

And he runs to meet him.

He runs to embrace his filthy, unworthy son in all of his brokenness. Welcoming and clothing him. Celebrating, “This son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:11-32)

We have such a Father.  

Pray

The next patient is waiting. But as Manga leaves, I pray for her. For her daughter.  

And today I pray.

Lord, open their eyes to see. Open their ears to hear Your truth. Open their hearts to receive the One who came to seek and to save the lost.

That they might know the Father who sees their brokenness. 

And loves them so. 

For a video of Jimmy Scroggins explaining The Three Circles, click here: Three Circles Life Conversation Guide

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The mystery of the gospel – The way of escape – Redeemed – Gospel conversations along the way – Set free on the Sabbath – Matters of the heart –