The Vicious Circle of Brokenness

In Daily Devotional by Kirk Giles

Theme of the Week: Brokenness Is Real

Bible Verse: “It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” Exodus 14:12b, ESV

Scripture Reading: Exodus 14:10-14

In the New York Times bestselling book The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel Van Der Kolk writes, “One reason that traumatic memories become dominant in PTSD is that it’s so difficult to feel truly alive right now. When you can’t be fully here, you go to the places where you did feel alive – even if those places are filled with horror and misery.”

Exodus 14 ends up becoming a victory story, but it almost did not end up that way. The Israelites were abused as slaves of Egypt, and God was about to rescue them finally. As they approach the Red Sea, they face a series of great unknowns. How will we cross the water? What is on the other side? The Egyptians are coming, and we are all just going to die here. Can we trust Moses or even God?

The brokenness they experienced because of being slaves resulted in great fear of the Egyptian army and a lack of trust in God. This fear gripped Israel, and they wanted to go back to “normal” – even though normal was filled with horror and misery.

The sin that created the brokenness in Israel resulted in a response of sin by Israel.

This response happens to us, as well. When we have been sinned against, we often sin against others in response. Being broken because of others’ sin is vital to identify, but it is not a place to stay. We cannot blame what happened to us as a child to justify our sinful actions and attitudes today. We cannot excuse cursing out the driver who cut us off in traffic simply because he cut us off in traffic. One of the principles my mom always taught me was, “two wrongs don’t make a right.”

When the sin of others against us leads us to respond in sin to someone else, we live and perpetuate a vicious circle of brokenness.

Rather than taking things into your own broken hands to resolve it in a broken way, what if we trusted God and his way? “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” (Exodus 14:14)

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About
Kirk Giles
Kirk Giles is the co-lead pastor of Forward Church in Cambridge, ON. He was formerly the President of Impactus (when it was known as Promise Keepers Canada). However, his most important roles as a man are husband to Shannon and father to Carter, Joshua, Sydney and Samuel. He is also the author of The Seasons of Fatherhood.
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Kirk Giles
Kirk Giles is the co-lead pastor of Forward Church in Cambridge, ON. He was formerly the President of Impactus (when it was known as Promise Keepers Canada). However, his most important roles as a man are husband to Shannon and father to Carter, Joshua, Sydney and Samuel. He is also the author of The Seasons of Fatherhood.