Broken
Introduction
The story of the Good Samaritan1 in the Bible depicts a journey of a young man who left his people and his father’s house in Jerusalem to embark on an adventurous journey to Jericho. What was perhaps meant to be a trip of pleasure left him by the road side, beaten beyond recognition and left for dead. The Good Samaritan comes in the nick of time to save this young man. He takes the young man under his roof and the journey of restoration starts, all costs borne by the Good Samaritan.
One can only imagine the thoughts that ran through the young man’s mind as he lay by the road side, staring death in the face. Thoughts of regret, shame and embarrassment enveloped him as he blamed himself for the misfortune that had befallen him. He might have remembered his father pleading with him to stay home, and his family trying to convince him to change his mind about the trip. He may have recalled his mother, relatives and even neighbours trying to advise him against the trip, but he was adamant to try a new thing and pursuing a life-changing journey. Perhaps he thought they were jealous of him, that they did not understand him or that they were just too nosey and wouldn’t let him enjoy his life.
Many of our life challenges are due to a lack of proper judgment, wrong decision-making, or pride. Sometimes it’s a combination of all these factors. Many lives have been lost to passion killings because of wrong relationships. It’s not that the toxic signs were absent, but some chose instead to ignore them, thus making the wrong decisions.
They may have chosen to turn a blind eye to signs of wrong a character that the partner had, who eventually ended up killing them. When they become victims of circumstances, they find themselves in a moment of helplessness.
Many people have found themselves in a similar position, where they ended up broken, shattered and left with death as their only way out because of bad decisions they made in their lives. The enemy has succeeded at setting a trap for many people to find themselves in a situation of being crushed and broken. One of the tactics the enemy has successfully killed this generation with is getting involved in wrong sexual relationships. Many young and even old people have found themselves lost and hopeless due to having entered into the wrong relationship. They found themselves rebelling and chasing after lovers, rejecting their family’s counsel because all they were after was following their hearts in the name of love.
I believe it was in this moment of helplessness that the poor young man on the way to Jericho, lying by the road side, broken, found himself in. It could be at this moment that the young man admitted he was grievously wrong and wishing he had listened to the counsel of his loved ones. I bet it was at this moment that he realised he had lost chances and valuable opportunities while chasing after the wrong things. The moment where he realised that he had even lost what he was chasing.
This moment of life leaves you with regret, self-condemnation, shame and humiliation because of the unfortunate mishaps of your life. You were a brilliant student with a promising future, but you squandered it by becoming rebellious and running after boys that you eventually dropped out of school, had children out of wedlock and lost the one guy you thought would be your saviour and your trophy. Perhaps because you had nothing else going for you, you held onto this guy who made you feel better about yourself. You may have therefore attached your identity and happiness to this relationship and this existence. But when he walks out of your life the shame and embarrassment you will have to face will be unbearable. The thought of him being with another girl causes you to go into a rant and your sense of identity is tampered with. So you would rather hold on to this relationship, even though this guy abuses you and walks all over you. You would rather keep up appearances with his presence than admit to yourself and society that he has moved on. You are now left with pain and feelings of shame and rejection that you even consider yourself a failure.
When you sit down and analyse your situation, you realise you are actually the reason why you are in it and that you are to blame for your misfortunes. If only you had listened to your parents; if only you had made a better choice!
Most of the time situations of rebellion leave you with nobody to support you because you might have pushed away your loved ones who tried to advice you when you were taking the wrong path and they ended up giving up on you altogether. You now find yourself down and out, alone, and even afraid to turn to your family for comfort. As a result, you end up with a battle in your mind, fighting negative thoughts and the devil’s condemnation - having no one to confide in and open up to. Therefore, you end up constantly closed up and living a lie as you try to keep up appearances while you die inside.
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