Yancey on Brokeness

Please, for goodness sake, read Philip Yancey's latest at CT, "The Benefits of Brokenness." He writes:

"For two problems...no politician dares offer a solution: death and evil. Endemic to the human condition, these two will haunt us all our days. Yet these are the very problems the gospel promises to solve—not through politics or science, but through a reclamation project begun at Golgotha."

Yancey wishes, in part, that he could be an alcoholic. Recovering alcoholics, he says, are usually prone not to self-righteousness but to brokenness:

"It occurred to me that what recovering alcoholics confess every day—personal failure, and the daily need for grace and help from friends and a Higher Power—represent high hurdles for those of us who take pride in our independence and self-sufficiency."

And this is the fertile ground that allows the seed of the gospel to prosper. I am asked on occasion what I think of some of the TV preachers. My main reaction is that they preach the heresy of self-sufficiency. "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps," "Your best life is just around the corner if you would only be positive," "If you would only have deeper faith, God will bless you." Though there is nothing wrong with discipline, some teach that this discipline happens outside of God's grace. "As long as I work hard enough," they say, "God will accept me." As Tim Keller would say, this is religion, not Gospel-centered Christianity. How? The only way to get ahead in the world--the only way you'll ever "win"--is by leaning into the great arms of God. The greatest people in the world know their depravity so intimately that they cannot help but be inwardly and overtly humble. They drink deeply every day from the Gospel of Christ which, in turn, destroys their pride and brings them great joy (just read about the difference between the Pharisee and the tax collector).

So Yancey is probably right. We should all hope for the brokenness of an alcoholic.