Falling Apart at the Feet of God
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those
who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18)
“Those who know
Your name will trust in You, for You, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek
You.” (Psalm
9:10)
Having
grown up with a biological dad who had almost nothing to do with me and two
ex-step-dads who I lost contact with eventually (one after a really, REALLY
messy divorce) and a current step-dad who . . . well, I am just too old for a
new dad . . . I have never really felt like I belonged to a dad, like I really
mattered to one.
I grew up
always feeling like the outsider, a step-child who didn’t quite fit in or have
a place to belong. I never felt like I
could be myself with a dad, like I was fully loved for who I was. It was always just a matter of time before
they left.
And this
caused a terrible fear of abandonment and a fear of being a burden to
anyone. It caused me to lean only on
myself and to polish up my outside so that I earned love and approval and
acceptance. It caused me to always keep my
distance, to keep walls up around my heart to protect it from being vulnerable,
being hurt. It caused me to always feel like I was on the outside, looking in.
And I
didn’t know that I was doing this with God, too, until a series of trials
crushed my confidence in myself and taught me that I was not as strong and
capable as I thought I was. I learned
that I couldn’t do it all on my own, like I was used to doing. I learned that I really needed God. Not just wanted Him, but needed Him. Desperately
needed Him.
I wasn’t
used to needing a father. I tried not to
need a father. Fathers let you down.
But those trials made me realize that my polished exterior and my chipper attitude and my "I can do it" spirit wasn't enough. And hiding my doubts and fears from God - acting like "I can do it all and do it with a godly, agreeable attitude" - wasn't helping my relationship with Him.
It was
hurting it. Because it kept me from
trusting Him enough to fall fully on Him.
It caused me to keep Him an arm’s length away from the broken, hurting
parts of my heart. It made me rely on
myself and not on Him.
All along,
I guess I was trying to please Him, to make Him happy with me so that I didn’t
offend Him or earn His wrath or disapproval.
I just wasn’t used to being real with a dad. I wasn’t used to knowing that I was accepted no
matter what and that I was loved just because I was theirs. I had to earn my way, my worth. And part of that was being pleasing, being
polished and agreeable.
But the various
trials that I went through broke me inside.
My heart and my spirit were breaking into small pieces and I couldn’t
keep it together. I couldn’t wear that
polished “good Christian” mask anymore.
It became too heavy to carry around.
I was so exhausted and broken and weak that I had to put it down. I was so tired of trying so hard that I
couldn’t even stand on my own anymore.
All I could do was fall down in despair at the feet of God. All I could do was say, “I can’t do it,
God. I am tired. So tired.
I am afraid. I am failing. I have no idea what to do. And I need You. I just need You to hold me for awhile because
I can’t even stand anymore.”
And that
was new to me. To fall on Him
completely, in utter weakness. And it
was scary to admit to the brokenness inside, the pain and fears and
doubts. But I had exhausted myself
trying every other way to manage on my own.
And
through that, I learned that God doesn’t want my pleasing efforts and polished
front. He doesn’t want to see that “good
Christian” mask. He wants me to be real
with Him. He wants to see the real
me. He wants me to lay my heart open before
Him, naked and vulnerable. To fall on
Him and say, “I can’t do it. I need
You.”
It’s okay to fall apart in front of the One who can put you
back together.
It’s okay to bring your chains to the
One with the key to free you.
It’s okay to be weak when you are leaning on the One who is
strong.
And it’s okay to not have all the answers when you know the
One who does.
He wants to
be let into all areas of our hearts and lives and pasts. He wants to be able to come in and heal
them. He wants to heal the heart wounds,
the fears, and the doubts with His love and truth.
But that
can’t happen when we lock them in a little, protected room in our hearts with
strong walls meant to keep everyone out, even Him. Meant to protect us from being vulnerable and
risking getting hurt again.
Through the
pain, I have learned to break down those walls, to let God in, to be real with
Him. (Maybe not with others, but at
least with Him.) I think that it’s okay
that we have fears and doubts, as long as we bring them to Him honestly and
vulnerably. We need to live
transparently with Him if He is going to be able to heal us and help us on our
journey.
There is a
truth that you need to know: You cannot
make God love you any more than He already does . . . and nothing you do can
make Him love you any less. So you do
not need to hide all the bad parts of yourself and put on some “good Christian”
mask. You don’t need to polish yourself
up to make Him love you more or care more about you.
He doesn’t
want your “good Christian performance.”
He wants your heart. He wants a
genuine relationship with you. He wants
to heal the broken parts. But this
cannot happen if we lock them deep into our hearts so that no one – not even
God – can touch them.
If you want
an authentic, genuine relationship with Him, you need to be authentic and
genuine with Him. You need to come
before Him humbly and take off the mask and present your real self to Him. He can handle the honesty, the ugly and
broken and faulty parts of you.
But what He
does not want is distance between your heart and His. Jesus died to bridge the gap between us and
Him so that there would be no distance, so that we could freely and humbly
enter into His throne-room and fall into His arms and let His love complete
us.
Hiding the
bad parts won’t make Him love you more because He loves you as much as He ever
could . . . as you are . . . right now.
It will only bring distance and heartache! So get rid of the mask and get real with
Him. It is too exhausting and
discouraging to keep that mask on anyway!
And we were never meant to wear it!
God doesn’t
want our good performance. He wants our
honest hearts.
He doesn’t
want pretty and polished and proper. He
wants real and ugly and raw.
He doesn’t
want us to just want Him. He wants us to
need Him and to know that it’s okay
that we need Him, that we can’t do it on our own.
He doesn’t
want us to try to earn His approval, love, forgiveness, grace or mercy. He just wants us to accept the approval,
love, forgiveness, grace, and mercy that He already offers freely to us.
And the
only way this can happen is to get humble and get real with Him! I was a Christian for over two decades before
I learned to do this, before I learned to take off the “good Christian mask”
and vulnerably open my heart to Him and get real and fall on Him in exhaustion
and let Him hold me.
This might
be one of the hardest parts of the Christian journey! And the process of getting real with Him and with yourself really does hurt. But there is so much healing and love and
peace on the other side. So don’t fear
Him. Don’t fear being real with
Him. It might hurt, but it will be worth
it!
“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” (James
4:8)
“Hear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. .
. . Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to you all day long. Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O
Lord, I lift up my soul. You are
forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call on you. Hear my prayer, O Lord; listen to my cry for
mercy.” (Psalm 86:1-6)
“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he
delivers them from all their troubles.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed
in spirit.” (Psalm 34:17-18)
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and
contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
(Psalm 51:17)
(reposted from Love, Heal Me)