We Are All Broken
We are all broken. We know this if we’re even remotely honest about our thoughts and inmost desires of our hearts. We know this by looking at our world. We also know it from the Bible, beginning in the third chapter of the first book and continuing throughout both testaments. While our information-age culture may shine more light on the evil and brokenness all around us, we know they have always been lurking in every corner.
Between what we see on the news and the political climate in our country, it would be easy to fall into despair. Some of us may be struggling with how brokenness can creep in and suffocate us, often to the point of paralysis. Conversely, some of us may have built up walls of indifference, not because we don’t care, but out of an instinct to protect our hearts.
The same way I see two sides in so much in the world, I see both darkness and beauty in brokenness. Brokenness paves the way for hope. Brokenness is the chasm where Jesus can work to fill in the gaps. In the weakness of our brokenness, he is made strong. In our brokenness, the world can observe God move, restore, and reconcile.
Brokenness in Illness
As I write this, I’m a few days from the one-year mark of my mother’s passing from cancer. She was sixty-nine. Throughout the progress of her disease, I wrote about what was hard and broken as well as about where I saw beauty and redemption. I continue to believe God can and does make beauty from ashes.
One of the clearest examples during that time was witnessing my dad loving and serving her. He learned how to do her makeup. He knew how she liked things and did them that way, even when it caused him more work. She loved red and liked to have her acrylic nails done every two weeks. When she couldn’t make it to the salon, Dad asked her nail technician to come to the house instead. It was both heartbreaking and beautiful.
While we weren’t ready to lose Mom when we did, the number of individuals influenced by her joy and faith throughout her life is countless. In a culture where it seems like we see more failed marriages than successful ones, many people also benefited from seeing my parents’ love and sacrificial commitment on display.
I don’t know why her time on earth ended when it did, but I’m content not to have that answer. The glimpses God gave me of himself throughout this experience enabled me to continue to make the daily choice of putting my trust in him, even should the outcome be the opposite of my pleas to him.
Brokenness in Children
I’ve also seen beauty in the brokenness as some of my friends have entered the world of adoption and foster care. The brokenness is undeniable as you see the trauma inflicted by unloving or struggling biological parents. But as my friends and their communities unabashedly pour love on these wounded children, the children respond. It’s beautiful as you see them realize, albeit sometimes so slowly, that they are so very deserving of love.
One of my best friends is fostering a sweet baby right now. It’s fascinating to hear her tell how it has taken six months for him to really look her family in the eye. He still doesn’t look his biological parents in the eye during their visits, so the work my friend is doing to love even this baby clearly translates to him.
Brokenness in Me
As Christ followers, we are called to address brokenness, but we must start in our own hearts. As I’ve aged, I’ve learned this is a process. I think I’ve tackled and resolved one thing, and then I uncover brokenness in another area of my heart I never realized. Some brokenness can take years and professional therapy to fully restore.
When it comes to the brokenness of others, I believe it’s our responsibility as Christ followers to seek him regarding our passions. There is too much brokenness for us to individually solve, but my husband and I are getting involved with those in poverty and with the refugees in our community. Many other noble areas are in need of assistance, but these are the two we feel called toward. We can take rest and comfort in knowing we’re doing our part in the body of Christ and cheer others on to do theirs.
We can’t be vessels to heal all the broken places, but neither must we be paralyzed into idleness. We can step in and saturate one broken place at a time with the perfect tool God gave us: the gospel. The gospel gives us a place to see and acknowledge brokenness in all its depth, but not give in to despair because we know God will, without doubt, make all things new and right again.
In the meantime, the gospel also compels us to use our gifts, talents, and resources for the sake of those who are hurting, marginalized, or rejected because that is precisely who Jesus commands and empowers believers to love and serve, whom he himself loved and served.
is a Jesus follower, wife, mom of three, church planter, finance director, and lover of sarcasm and deep conversation with friends. She also loves camping, rafting, skiing, sewing, and having people over. Amy blogs with her husband at fringechurch.com.
Photograph © Vin Stratton, used with permission
