Bruised reeds, smoldering wicks

Matthew 12: 14 - 21

He will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick....

"We are vulnerable beings." It has taken me long to be able to claim that statement and more so, to embrace it. In a church of strength and power and success, there is often no place for bruised reeds and smoldering wicks to listen to their wounds, to, as Henri Nouwen would say, "claim their brokenness" while trusting the Divine Healer.

Yes, we can ask for prayer for our needs (ill health, financial and relational struggles etc) but there are not many who are willing to walk the journey with us. In saying this, I believe I am not again falling into my Enneagram type One - the idealist who criticizes. I have done my own inner work and am able to 'let go' and yet remain hopeful that somewhere God will raise people who can help others embrace their brokenness.
But the point is that a 'theology of the cross' has somehow been left out from the messages we hear. No one wants to suffer unnecessarily. And I for one, would always encourage people to seek the appropriate help they need, rather than remain mired in their wounds.

But even in helping, we often move people too quickly to a pseudo wholeness (which makes us feel better because we have done something!!) - for example, just by 'claiming' the promises of God. Just by patching some platitudes onto the problem, we hope for breakthroughs. But Jesus, I have experienced, works differently. He does not 'push' people in a roughshod manner, cajoling them to wholeness. He is the gentle healer who offers a hand of friendship in whatever way they need. His miracles of healing were all graced by deep relational experiences of God. The power of God transformed people's understanding of the Messiah. It was a gradual opening of eyes to the Messiah whose death, whose own vulnerability, is the door to life. Nothing less.