Brokenness is What I Want?

As I drove home from a prayer time at church tonight, I found the words to a song we sang when I was growing up in church running through my head.

Brokenness, brokenness is what I long for
Brokenness is what I need
Brokenness, brokenness is what You want from me

Take my heart, and form it
Take my mind, transform it
Take my will, conform it
To Yours, to Yours, O Lord

When we sang this song growing up, I was never really sure that I wanted to tell God brokenness was what I wanted or needed. It didn't seem like it was something I really wanted.

I mean, honestly, is being broken really something that is fun? Or something we would generally want?

Especially when we live in a culture that tells us we need to have it all together . . . or at least that we should look like it . . . it can be hard to allow ourselves to be broken. To allow God to break us.

But, I'm beginning to see that no matter how we may try to avoid brokenness, it is necessary. If we're living behind walls that keep people from seeing who we really are, we end up missing out what God has for us. But when we allow God to break us, we get what He has for us.

Maybe that needs to become our prayer - for ourselves and for our churches. That we would be broken before God, so that we don't miss out on what God has for us.

What if the words of that song we used to sing when I was growing up became our prayer? What kind of difference would that begin to make?