Help for the Wounded Spirit

          Among many adequate definitions, one way to describe wisdom is competence for the complex realities of life.  Our pride makes it very temping for us to try to boil everything down to simply evaluations.  Yet, the longer I live the more naiveté goes out the window as I realize that very few problems are as simple as I would like.

          Consider the complexities of the human heart.  We’ve all experienced very powerful and conflicting feelings that we’ve struggled to sort out and deal with adequately.  Feelings and emotions roil and rage and almost overwhelm us while we feel impotent in our efforts to change them.

          Proverbs 18:14 says, “A man’s spirit can endure sickness, but who can survive a broken spirit?”  The word for spirit is often translated as wind and it carries the idea of power and energy.  And when it is used in the context of the human heart, it speaks of our mental energy and emotional power to live life.  A person’s spirit is that part of them that should want to engage life and live life fully.

          But what happens when a person’s spirit is broken?  A broken spirit shies away from life with no desire for it and no joy in it.  Of course one person’s spirit can be more broken than another’s.  One can be merely discouraged while the other can have no more desire to live.

And when this Proverb says, “A man’s spirit can endure sickness, but who can survive a broken spirit,” it’s saying that when a person’s spirit is strong, one can endure physical afflictions, but a broken spirit can’t be endured no matter how physically healthy one may be.

          When Paul wrote to the New Testament churches, those churches were being persecuted as whole families were being taken to jail.  Yet, whenever Paul prays for them, he never prays that the trials would end or that families would stop going to jail.  Instead he says in Ephesians 3:16, “I pray that He may grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.”

Paul understood that if all your life is falling apart and broken, but your inner spirit is strong, then you are able to live life with strength.

          Now in light of this, do we understand the priority we must place on the health of our inner life?  Our spirit?  That part of us that can provide us with strength regardless of how difficult everything becomes?  Do you see how important it is to deposit grace into your inner spirit?  Proverbs reminds us that it is foolish to not give adequate attention to the health of our inner life.

          The question then becomes: what can we do to maintain good spiritual health?  Or what contributes to a broken spirit?  How do we get so powerless to manage our feelings and emotions until we are completely disheartened and despondent?

          The biblical answer is that it’s complicated.  The human heart, the inner spirit is complex and therefore requires wisdom.  First, a broken spirit may have a physical aspect as Proverbs 14:30 says, “A tranquil heart is life to the body, but jealousy is rottenness to the bones.”  Doctors have told us for years that poor emotional health can lead to poor physical health, implying also that poor physical health can contribute to poor emotion health.  Not getting enough sleep, a poor diet, a lack of exercise can all facilitate brokenness in spirit.

          Secondly, a broken spirit may have a relational aspect.  Proverbs 12:25, “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down, but a good word cheers it up.”  I can’t tell you how many times I have had my countenance lifted by the kind words of the people to which I minister.  Yet the most valuable has always been my wife’s willingness to put her arms around me and make my leading of our home a joy rather than a battle.  And because of the relational nature, sometimes we just need the nearness and support of others.

          Thirdly, a broken spirit may have a moral aspect.  Proverbs 28:1, “The wicked flee when no one is pursuing them, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.”  This is your guilty conscience speaking when you know you done something wrong.  And even when no one is pursuing you, guilt can make you a defensive person in general.  When someone criticizes you, you may feel assaulted because you already have a bad conscience.  You constantly feel the need to defend yourself for whatever part you may have played in the deterioration of a relationship even though no one has accused you of anything.  Your guilty conscience can make you feel like you need to flee even if no one is chasing you.

          Fourthly, a broken spirit may have a philosophical aspect.  Proverbs 14:13, “Even in laughter a heart may be sad, and joy may end in grief.”  We all know that the fun will be over eventually.  The back yard barbeques and watching our kids grow and all the joys of life eventually come to a halt.  We all know that eventually someone in our family will stand at the final graveside.  Blasé Pascal said that one of the things that people think about the most while talking about the least is the fact that there is a death on the horizon that we cannot escape.  Unless you can find a philosophical category that helps you cope with death, no matter how much fun you have, sadness and grief are always waiting over the horizon.  Your broken spirit may be fueled by your lack of answers as you ask, “Why do I exist?  Why do I die?”

          If anything can be said about our inner spirit, we can say it’s complex.  You may need medicine, or love, or repentance, or answers, or a combination of all.

          Finally, a broken spirit may have a hope aspect.  Proverbs 15:13, “A joyful heart makes a face cheerful, but a sad heart produces a broken spirit.”  In the Bible your heart is that part of you that looks for something to live for, something in which to invest yourself while hoping that it will give your life meaning and significance.  And you say to yourself, “If I can get that, then I will feel like I matter.”  This verse reminds us that putting our hope in something, whether it be our success or a romantic relationship or the approval of people or raising a family, that those things will inevitably disappoint us.  And because that was the thing for which we lived, when it fail us, our spirits will break.

          Proverbs 14:10 says, “The heart knows its own bitterness, and no outsider shares in its joy.”  The ups and downs of your heart are so complex that no one else will really understand you.  Proverbs 16:2, “All a man’s ways seem right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the motives.”  Even you don’t understand your inner spirit completely.  In other words, there is no human being who can adequately assess all the emotional and spiritual turmoil you may be experiencing.  Therefore, if you don’t have a real sense of knowing God personally, and knowing His nearness to the brokenhearted, then in a real sense you on your own in this world.  One commentator said, “God is the only one who can walk with you in every dark valley and understand you completely.”

          Now let’s consider the healing of a broken spirit.  In Genesis there was a tree of life in the middle of the Garden of Eden.  Theologians tell us this tree represented the complete fulfillment of the human heart’s deepest desires.  Yet, as we read the account in Genesis, we see that the human race lost the tree of life.  Genesis 3:24, “He drove man out, and east of the Garden of Eden He stationed cherubim with a flaming, whirling sword to guard the way to the tree of life.”  When we decided to look away from God in an effort to find fulfillment elsewhere, we lost the tree of life.  We lost the one relationship that could truly meet our heart’s deepest desires.

          Proverbs 13:12 says, “Delayed hope makes the heart sick, but fulfilled desire is a tree of life.”  The things in this world we set our hearts upon in hopes of filling the emptiness inside will always leave us feeling emptier.  When we look into our hearts, we see that we are longing for something we’ll never find in this world.  But there is a tree of life that will do for us what no created thing will do.

          When Jesus died on the cross, he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  This is a quote from Psalm 22 which has another verse that says, “My heart is like wax, melting within me.”  That verse is describing a broken spirit.  In other words, the cross became a tree of life as the Son of God was eternally crushed in spirit so that our spirit could one day be eternally healed.

          As devastating and as painful and as grieving as a wounded and broken spirit can be, it is only a shadow of that which awaits us in eternity since we have rejected our creator that we may pursue the creation.  Yet, this is what Jesus stepped into upon the cross.  Imagine what it was like for Him to experience the ultimate and eternal brokenness of which ours is only a shadow.  And He did it because He loves you.  My friend, trust in this Savior, the One who would rather go to hell for you than go to heaven without you.  And let the reality of this demonstration of His great love be what begins to heal your brokenness and fulfill your heart’s deepest longings.

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