Love Bridges the Gap of Brokenness

I opened my Bible tonight praying that God would reveal what I needed as well as what I needed to share. I flipped to Mark 10:17-31 which is the story of the rich man asking Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life (v. 17) Jesus rehearsed the commandments, and the man replied that he had followed those all the days of his life.

(V.21) “Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him.’There is still one thing you haven’t done,’ he told him. ‘Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

(V.22) “At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.”

This story hurts my heart because many times we choose temporary, worldly things instead of Jesus and His love that is the only one capable of satisfying our soul. After I read this passage, God reminded me of a picture He had shown me a little over a year ago...

God gave me a vision of a bridge that was busy with people walking on it. This doesn’t seem out of the blue, but there were construction signs all over the bridge.

“Don’t walk here”

“Bridge is Broken”

“Under Construction”

However, those walking seemed to disregard every warning. They proceeded with what they believed to be happiness, and there was a thrill of excitement as they toured but they were truly there to see what was there for them at the end. What they didn’t see was the dead end that waited upon their arrival. Once they crossed the bridge and got to the dead end their happiness dissipated instantly. Overwhelming sadness and disappointment consumed them every time someone reached the end of the bridge because they didn’t reach the fulfillment they were seeking.

So many times we are walking across a broken bridge, walking through things that we hope will bring us fulfillment and we pursue those things with all of our heart to only reach the end and realize that we have been chasing the wrong things the whole time. We believe the pursuit of happiness will make our life worthwhile, and we walk across the bridge of money and once we get to the end it’s a dead end and then the realization sets in of wasted time and passion. Money won’t make you happy, it will only make you wealthy. The pursuit of joy will fulfill you.

The dead end represents the end of your life. The end of your time on earth. So many of the bridges we choose to walk across are temporary things.

God is watching all of these people choose the temporary bridges and His heart is aching because He’s saying “I’m not a broken bridge. My bridge isn’t under construction. I’m not a dead end. Once you come to an end on My bridge, there will be a new beginning right after it with a journey awaiting you, but it’ll be with Me.”

There is a vast array of options of bridges and things you can pursue in this life, but which bridges are going to lead to fulfillment and lasting joy?

There is only one bridge that doesn’t have a dead end. That is the bridge of Love, God’s Way. It is the only bridge that will lead you to Heaven and the great thing is that it is not hard to find. Oftentimes we come across God’s bridge before we are introduced to any of the others.

Why do we keep picking the broken instead of the whole? Broken pieces that don’t fit together will never make a whole anything.

God has a big plan for you, but if you keep trying to use broken pieces to fix your shattered soul you will never be whole.

You cannot walk the bridge of wealth and lust and worldly things while walking with God. It is one or the other. In the midst of it all, it can seem stormy and cloudy and hard to pick one, but if you look at the bigger picture, Love is the better answer. Every. Single. Time.