Camp Devotions, Part 1

I'll post here the devotions that Jay-rod and I wrote for my week of Church Camp. This is the first one:

Overcoming Brokenness
Jarod Anderson


“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Being a farm kid from the Middle of Nowhere, Kansas, I’ve heard this phrase hundreds of times. It’s what farmers say when they’d rather keep their old, rusty, worn-down tractor instead of buying a new one.

The principle does have some value. For instance, too many times in my life, I’ve tried to “fix” my computer (usually because it wasn’t fast enough, or because I wanted to make it run more smoothly. I usually end up misplacing something important, losing information, and the stupid thing runs worse than it did before I decided to tinker. If I would just leave it alone, I’d probably be better off.

In this life, however, that idea doesn’t work, because we’re all broken.
All of us have either experienced, or know someone who has experienced divorce. We all know what it’s like to lose someone we loved, either to death or separation. An amazing number of people your age have lived through physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. And all of these horrible things leave us broken, with a feeling of emptiness, wondering how we’ll ever be normal, how we’ll ever get through the next day, let alone the rest of our lives. How can we overcome the brokenness that this life brings?

Read Isaiah 61: 1-3.
These words that Isaiah wrote are messianic, that is, they refer to what would happen when Messiah (Jesus) came to earth.
What is the good news that Isaiah is preaching?
What will happen to those who grieve and mourn?

God wants you to know that He cares. He cared enough for you, even in your broken state, that he sent his son to die…for you. And he wants your grief to turn to gladness, and your mourning to joy.

As you pray this morning, ask God to heal your brokenness, whatever that may look like in your life. Ask him to replace your spirit of sadness with joy that is unlimited.

Only God can fix what really is broken.