Broken

When Life's Pain Results in God's Beauty

Question - When did something “break” in your life that changed the course and direction for your day, week, month or season?

“We're All in This Together… “ It's a famous song  from Disney’s High School Musical 3 and a tune that is filled with great  joy and celebration for so many people. When I hear it, I pause because for a moment I am filled with regret, then pain, and soon followed by an overwhelming sense of grate-fullness.

The date was January 3rd, 2008. Our staff came together to film a music video to the song mentioned above for a fundraising campaign for the church.  We were all asked to do something “fun and silly”. I thought it would be humorous to try to flip another person by locking arms behind our back and then rolling that individual over and placing him on two feet on the other side of me. It was a good idea until I picked someone who was larger than myself. I tried to roll him over my back and when he didn’t make it, he returned to his original position and then to my surprise attempted to do the same to me. Halfway over, something happened and instead of my feet landing safely on the ground, my head crashed hard against the floor below.

Numbness and tingling  quickly settled in while lying on the ground, followed by an ambulance ride to the local hospital. It was determined that I fractured two vertebrae in my neck. I was a millimeter away from total paralysis. The fracture led to a four month journey filled with immobility, surgery, pain, therapy and recovery. Life stopped and everything changed.

The break and subsequent ceasing of all plans altered my perspective and hopes for a somewhat young, always healthy, mostly self centered human being who had lived life with things usually ending up in his favor. For once things didn’t fall my way (literally) and as I wrestled through the brokenness of the season I had to come to terms with my own shame, guilt, grief and weakness. 

It was humbling, but much needed.

It is through weakness and hardship that we learn. I rarely grow on the mountaintop of happiness. When I’m on top of the world I just want that moment to continue. I see things are good and often attribute it to my own hard work or fortune, patting myself on the back and vowing to keep it up as much as possible. 

It’s in the valley of brokenness where we are defined and even more refined. It’s in the pit where we seek help and admit that we don’t have it all together as we attempt to climb out. It’s in the lowest parts of life where we can see ourselves as we are and who we once perceived and projected ourselves to be.

In 2 Corinthians 12, the writer Paul says “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

As you look back at challenging days and seasons in life I hope you can also see a part of your soul being strengthened and how in your lowest moments you are loved and treasured more than any other. It’s in our weakness where our facade comes down and our dependence on our own ability is removed and we become formed by the fires of adversity. Our dependence on Christ forms and deepens in our “weakness, in insults, in hardships, persecutions and in difficulties.” It’s through this process that we emerge as God’s  beautiful and perfect image which does include our scars, our imperfections, and our brokenness.

We must remember that in our weakness He is made strong. May Gods grace be sufficient for you in your broken moments.

Question - What is broken right now in your life or world that God could be using to write a different story for you and bring you closer to Him?

Prayer - Lord thank you for the mountain tops to enjoy and the valleys to hike through. In all things both in in strength and in brokenness, let us turn to you and see you, trusting that you are using all things to draw us back to you in relationship and in love.

Amen

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