A Broken Spirit

(When the milk is splattered all over the floor and those little eyes are looking at you for your reaction, remember what really matters.  

It takes 5 minutes to clean up spilled milk; it takes much longer to clean up a broken spirit.) 

~Rebecca Eanes

This photo speaks to me on so many levels.  The last line says it so well:

“It takes 5 minutes to 

clean up spilled milk;

it takes much longer 

to clean up a broken spirit.”

After 6 years of blogging, I know that I write to a whole bunch of people who sometimes have broken spirits.  I can relate, for I am a recovering broken-spirited one.  On too many occasions, I have received a rebuke for my clumsiness.  I was expected to be perfect – walk perfectly; sit perfectly; and this gem:  “Speak up boy, don’t mumble your words.” 

Any time I would fumble, fall, step out of line or violate any other invisible infraction of which I knew nothing about, I would get a rebuke. 

So, for all of us with broken spirits and bruised lives, where is the hope? 

Part of our hope is found in some fine books.  Other places that house hope are safe and reasonable adults, therapist, and professionals who will guide us to a more level ground on which to rebuild our fractured lives.

The part you’re not going to appreciate is this – we sometimes have to dig out our own hope from whatever we can piece together from the shards of our everyday life.  

We may find bits and pieces in our reading material, our friendships, our therapist, and even our God experience.  I add this last one cautiously, for sometimes, the very people who claim to hang around God and speak for God are some of the worst abusers of the “breaking the spirit” crowd. 

Please listen very carefully to my next words, for I don’t want to be misunderstood.

I have a personal relationship with God through Christ.  I know where I stand with my Heavenly Father and I enjoy his abiding spirit in my life.

I’ve been exposed to multiple “religious” slants all attempting to interpret God’s wishes for how we should conduct our lives.  I find many of them harsh and grace-less. 

These teachers/preachers leave most of their audience members living with fear, guilt, shame, and living with a broken spirit, much like the little girl in the photo at the beginning of this article. 

What I have found helpful is this:  I have a select few Bible passages that are of great comfort to me, and I have a few affirmations that I resort to when the old recordings haunt my mind. 

Last week I posted some ideas from the book The Four Things that Matter Most.  It begins with four phrases that we need to be saying to those especially close to us.

Please forgive me

I forgive you

Thank you

I love you

A broken spirited person desperately needs to hear some of these phrases, for their biggest problem is this; they fear they are of no value, they have no worth, and there is nothing much of value that they can offer to anyone.  And that breaks my heart.

Besides my own very personal Bible verses, I’ve added to my life a few affirmations such as:

I approve of myself.

I am a worthwhile human being.

I am not my failures.

One step at a time is the way to where I want to go.

These are not magic elixirs.  They have no special magic, for as surely as I gravitate to these thoughts, others of you will gravitate to your own thoughts from completely different sources.

The point is this – you must find what works for you and the people who speak to your own heart and mind.  Above all, begin repairing your own broken spirit today. 

I have poured out my heart to God on numerous occasions, and I’ve done it through prayer and through something called “Morning Pages”, an idea taken from Julie Cameron’s book The Artist Way.

A partial list of some of the authors who have helped me are Brennan Manning, Philip Yancey, Brene Brown, Henry Nouwen’s The Return of the Prodigal, and so many more.  I hesitate to list a lot of books or more Bible verses or affirmations for fear you will adopt my list of helps and not dig these out for yourself.

You see, it is the digging for oneself that is the important principle here.  We have to do the hard work.  We have to find what works for us as individuals. 

Bottom line – a broken spirit can be repaired.  It can heal. 

And God stands nearby and will help you.

I will be praying for you.

P Michael Biggs

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