Last year I had a huge crack in my windshield from a rock that flew up and hit my car on the highway. Luckily, I had insurance to cover the cost of replacing it. But then a month or so later, it happened again. I was very upset because I knew I would have to wait a whole year to get insurance to cover another replacement. The good thing about this crack, though, was that it was super small and ran along the very top of the windshield on the passenger side. It actually wouldn’t be a problem at all. In fact, I forgot all about it.
Out of sight, out of mind… until it wasn’t.
Now it has almost been a year, and that tiny crack has slowly made its way directly into my visual field. There is no ignoring it anymore. I see it clearly every day and it distorts my view. I have to look over and under it. It has been so annoying that I talk about it with my husband at least once a week.
I think this is how most cracks happen in our lives. Something hard, painful, or traumatic happened in our childhood or early adulthood creating a fracture in our identity or relationships. But we can keep living life until one day that little crack becomes something we can no longer ignore. We feel the discomfort it brings up. We see it in our stories. It is distorting the way we see ourselves, our world, and even how we see God. It is impacting our relationships and influencing our decisions. This wound feels too big for all the bandaids we’ve placed on it. It requires real and deep healing that we can’t handle alone.
In John 4, we meet the Samaritan woman with fractured relationships and broken self-worth.
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.”
John 4:16-18 ESV
We are not told in the text the exact event that first created the crack in her life, but we can tell by this glimpse into this woman’s story that she is wounded. As we read about her encounter with Jesus, it’s clear she has a distorted view of life.
She is isolated. Whether an intentional decision to avoid people or because others have rejected her, she came to the well alone at the hottest part of the day, which is an uncommon practice.
She is insecure. Her immediate response to Jesus asking for water is to point out the racial and gender difference that makes her less than Him.
She is defensive. She tries to push Jesus away. “Are you greater than our Father Jacob who gave us this well?” As Jesus digs deeper into her personal life, she avoids the topic and shifts to blaming the Jews for telling Samaritans where they ought to worship.
Her brokenness was visible to her, to her community, and to Jesus. And while everyone else chose to ignore it, Jesus went out of His way to travel through Samaria and visit at a well to make her whole. Jesus chose this broken woman — with all her trauma and cracks — to be the first person to know that He is the Messiah. Not His disciples or His family, but her. And she becomes the first evangelist.
So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him.
John 4: 28-30 ESV
Shame had silenced her and caused her to hide. Rejection had told her that she was beyond repair. But after meeting Jesus, she ran to the very people who rejected her and joyfully proclaimed her encounter with the Messiah! The story that once caused her shame became her ministry platform to point people to Jesus.
Friend, we all have these cracks. God can use the pain you’ve endured for a purpose, but living in the brokenness is not your purpose. You are meant to have abundant life and wholeness. So will you allow Jesus to expose those wounds so He can heal you from the inside out?
Jesus will not allow shame to steal your identity nor rejection to steal your purpose. He is waiting for you.
Leave a Comment
Madeline says
Such powerful words, Simi. I never gave thought to what started that crack to the woman at the well. This message will resonate with me for sure. It makes me think about some of the people I encounter along the way. It makes me think about my behaviors and where it all started. So, thank you for a thought provoking message.
Simi John says
It really helped me identify the lies and the pain that shaped me, so I could be released and walk in wholeness!
Janet W says
Amen \0/ ohhhhh what a story our cracks tell
Thank you Simi
Simi John says
Yes. We often want to hide the cracks and ignore them but we often leak out on those we love the most, so when we surrender the broken places to Jesus, He makes us whole so we can live abundant lives.
Lisa Wilt says
Simi,
Thank you for sharing… As I near 60 I look in the mirror and I see cracks in my face and I’m so grateful for all the years God has given me… I agree with you… God uses cracks!
Sending you autumn joy,
Lisa Wilt♥️
Sim says
Yesss, our cracks don’t define our worth or identity.
Kathy says
Simi, I can so identify and your words today truly spoke to me!
All the small cracks, became deep crevices to me allow the way, but praise God, He reached down His hand for me and I am whole in Him now! I am who I am today that God repaired the huge crack in my windshield of life!! Bless you for this beautiful analogy!
Simi John says
Love that! He loves us too much to leave us broken! He came to restore what humanity broke in the garden, and to make us whole!
Kathy says
Simi, Thank you for this morning’s message of hope. As a survivor of childhood abuse, my crack (ignored for many years) almost took me down a path of ultimate destruction. Thank God I finally reached out for the help I so desperately needed. It’s been a very long journey taken one step at a time, but wholeness is achievable with the grace of God. I pray may others find their way, too.
Simi John says
I am so sorry you had to endure that…but what joy it is to know that our Jesus can redeem even that pain.
Aliza Latta says
Beautiful words, my friend. Thank you!
Simi John says
Thanks so much!
Donna says
Thank you Simi for your encouraging words this morning. They all resonate with me. I will be 78 this Saturday. Last year I broke my right hip and femur and was in hospital for 2 weeks for corrective surgery and therapy. Then a month of therapy at home. I also suffer seasons of depression and anxiety (in one now). Finally, I have a debilitating back condition which has changed my whole life and greatly effected my husband’s life. But, I look to the Lord Jesus, Maker of heaven and earth! He is faithful always!! God’s blessings and healing to you all!
Simi John says
Said a prayer for you now, friend!
Donna says
Thank you very much and the Lord’s blessing and healing to you!
Dawn Ferguson-Little says
Simi thank you for what you wrote. It is so true. We are broken people made whole by Jesus. It reminds me of the pieces of a jigsaw. Each shape is so difficult how it all fits together it in end. Like us we all fit together when saved in love for either. To be one big family with all our body shapes like a jigsaw. It takes time to build and put all our different parts together as we are all different with different shapes and sizes. We all have to learn to get to know either in our Churches etc know how to love either plus the whole world. So as the pieces of the jigsaw fix together meaning us. To make that beautiful picture for our love for Jesus. Plus when we are broken and made whole. With the beautiful wonderful people Jesus want us to. That like the jigsaw fixed together with all the pieces and it different shapes and colour so we each make that beautiful picture. That the world can see from our lives. If a piece missed or a few that we are finding hard to join together and seek Jesus to help us be beautiful picture Jesus he wants to be like the jigsaw. But it takes time it for us to get to be that beautiful picture Jesus wants us to be. One step at times. Love Dawn Ferguson-Little Enniskillen Co.Fermanagh N.Ireland xx
Simi John says
Yes, it’s a process of walking with Jesus to lead us into wholeness and abundant life
Jill says
Thank you for sharing these beautifully written words with us. An analogy nearly everyone can relate to.
Simi John says
I am so glad it spoke to you!!