Morning Devotional

August  22, 2005
"A Broken Heart"      
    by Don Emmitte

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Now the LORD observed the extent of the people's wickedness, and he saw that all their thoughts were consistently and totally evil. So the LORD was sorry he had ever made them. It broke his heart. (Genesis 6:5-6 NLT).

Relationships are complicated. Have you ever thought about how much easier life would be without any people in it? How about it? A sure way to an uncomplicated life would be to remove everyone but you. Right? When you stop and think about it there really are only two options: isolation or complication. You can hole up inside your own shell or come out and complicate your neat, orderly life with unpredictable relationships. Unfortunately, love has no other options.

It has been my experience that life is never easy. Even when there are no immediate trials or challenges to face, life is at best complicated. God knows that all too well. Have you ever imagined how complicated God’s life got when He created us? That’s certainly at the heart of our reading today. God certainly wasn’t under any obligation to create. Yet, he did. After it was all done, he finds that the world he designed was a great disappointment to him. So much so, that he decided to start over. That resulted in the great flood. Only Noah and his family were spared the judgment of God. However, he still maintained the gift of freedom of will in mankind.

Freedom of will is a pesky little thing. Given man’s desire to live alone and independent of any outside governing authority (the Bible calls that our sin nature), the process of evil continued. Mankind was soon in as bad a shape as during the days of Noah. God’s life was complicated again! The interesting thing is how God faced that complication.  It culminated in a devastating crucifixion. It took that much for Him to straighten everything out. Love drove him to pay the ultimate sacrifice to bring us back into a positive relationship with him. For God, this potential was worth it.

Love is worth it. Love is impossible in isolation. Isolation is a vacuum and love needs a relationship to breathe. Any relationship brings complications; so it’s your choice. Hey, someone made the right choice or you wouldn’t be here to make your own now. Lest you think that others are the source of your complications, think again. Relationships merely show us who we really are. They are like mirrors into our own dysfunction, and that is actually part of our salvation, because we probably wouldn’t see it otherwise.

So think about all the complicated relationships in your life today, and thank God for what they show you about yourself. Ask God to heal you and then put your arms around those complications, because the overcoming power of God’s love is in them, waiting for you, and you wouldn’t want anything less.