In Others’ Words: Learning to Live with Brokenness

Brokenness fascinates me.

It seems the theme of brokenness intrigues a lot of people — a lot of writers, to be specific. Elisa Morgan wrote about it in her book The Beauty of Broken. Then there’s Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Henry T. Blackaby’s Brokenness: The Heart God Revives; Finding God’s Blessings in Brokenness  by Charles Stanley; and of course Ann Voskamp’s best-selling book,The Broken Way.

I admit, I resisted brokenness for a lot of years. I was fine, just fine, thank you very much. But only as I admitted I was broken beyond all pretense and beyond any self-repair was I able to allow God to be fully God in my life. Seeing myself as both broken and redeemed gave me the freedom to release the lie of perfectionism and step into the wide open space of God’s grace. (Romans 5:1-5 The Message.) And yes, I know some people don’t care for The Message version, but read this:

By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.

We don’t escape life unbroken. But each one of us needs to find a way to realize that’s okay. Not painless, but okay.  God’s original plan for our lives got wrecked and perfection awaits us in eternity, not here and now. But His presence — His peace, His comfort, His lovingkindness — awaits us new every morning.

In Your Words: How do you feel about the word “broken,” especially when it’s applied to your life? What helps you accept the broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations in your life?

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