Let’s just say it. There is nothing fair about life. It throws us curves that leave us reeling, and sometimes we throw the curve all by ourselves. One thing I have learned in my own life, and in the lives of others, is that there is plenty of pain to go around. Everyone suffers that pain. Sometimes in private and sometimes in public but all of us experience it. So here is the question: If life is not fair, what does God want to do in our lives when we come apart? When our hope and our hearts are broken?

I call it the Ragamuffin gospel and it is found in Isaiah 61:1-3. This is what the Lord wants to do in our pain. And this is what He wants to do in our life. 

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor   and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.”

Think of these adjectives: Poor, brokenhearted, captives, prisoners, mourners, grief, ashes and a spirit of despair. These are descriptors of those whose hearts are broken. Captive to their grief, prisoners to their bitterness, living with a spirit of despair and not caring about their circumstances beyond their pain.

I have seen many people like this around the world. There have been times in my own life where I lived in that gutter. And it is a gutter, a terrible place to be. Picture yourself there, sitting in that gutter, your clothes unwashed, your heart broken, your mind distracted, your eyes full of tears and a heart full of despair. 

Then, from a distance, you see a man, and he comes directly toward  you (yes you) with eyes full of love. He reaches for your filthy hands, lifts you up and says, “I have good news for you. Just for you. Made for you. I am going to comfort you. I am going to put on your head a crown of beauty to take the place of your tangled, unwashed, filthy hair. I am going to provide to you the oil of joy in place of your mourning and a beautiful garment of praise instead of your despair. Not only that but you will be a display of God’s splendor.” 

Would you ever be the same? This is the ministry of God, through Jesus, to those whose hearts are broken, who live in despair and who long for wholeness but are sure it cannot come to them. It can, and it does, if we will open our hearts to what God wants to do in us through the pain we are suffering. Embrace it, and He will embrace you. Open your heart, and He will fill it. Ask for healing, and He will bring it. It is why Jesus came and died and lives again. It is called salvation, redemption, healing and joy. 

Jesus, what can I say to that? Thank You. I open my heart today and ask You to fill it. I embrace  You and ask You to embrace me. I ask for healing and I ask You to bring it. Thank You for Your amazing love for a ragamuffin like me. Amen.