I wrote an entire blog post a few weeks ago about brokenness and how we have all experienced being broken in different ways at different times in our lives. Sometimes physically, sometimes emotionally, sometimes mentally, but all of us broken in different ways at different times. But how, despite our brokenness, together we can be whole. And how we sometimes view ourselves as broken while others, who have the thing we think we are lacking, view themselves as broken because of that very thing we think we are missing.
I went on to talk about some of the bravest people I know who struggle with depression, and mental health diagnoses, and who have been so open to share their struggles and their journeys. How open and brave they were to admit their brokenness.
I wrote about an experience I had with a precious friend the weekend before where she was having a bad day and through the opportunity to spend time together, her day was made better, and how that gift was reciprocated the following day when I was having a struggle of my own, and time with her had done for me what I had done for her the day before. I wrote about how the act of being honest with our struggles and with our pain, and the willingness to sit with each other in those struggles and in that pain, helped to heal us both.
I finished with the following thoughts:
“We are all broken. But despite our brokenness, together we can be whole. Through God’s grace. Through connection. Through vulnerability. Through honesty and through courage to admit our brokenness and our need. In our weakness, we are strong. Not through our own strength, but through Christ’s power. We are surrounded by broken people. But we are also surrounded by a loving and sovereign God. And we are surrounded by people who love us and want to help us to be more than we can be on our own. Despite our brokenness, together we can be whole. “
It was a solid post. It made a lot of good points. But I didn’t publish it. It just didn’t feel right. I wasn’t sure what about it didn’t feel right, but something didn’t. And, honestly, I kind of forgot about it. And then earlier this week I saw the quote that you see here. And when I scrolled past it initially, I stopped. Stopped scrolling. Backed up. Then stopped. It was one of those lightbulb moments where what you thought you were seeing isn’t at all what is. I saved the quote to my phone. I came across the quote on my phone again yesterday. I read it again. It was then that I realized what was wrong with my post about brokenness.
What was wrong is that we aren’t actually broken at all. We are just hurt. We don’t need fixing at all. We just need healing.
Wow. As the quote indicates, those concepts are completely different. Indeed they are.
One involves self-shame and one does not. One involves a need to change the core of who we are and one does not.
I think the basic tenets of my prior post are still correct, but what a difference a change in language makes:
“We are all hurting. But despite our pain, together we can be healed. Through God’s grace. Through connection. Through vulnerability. Through honesty and through courage to admit our pain and our need. In our weakness, we are strong. Not through our own strength, but through Christ’s power.
We are surrounded by hurting people.
But we are also surrounded by a loving and sovereign God.
And we are surrounded by people who love us and want to help us to be more than we can be on our own.
Despite our pain, together we can be healed. “
I’m not saying that there aren’t some people in this world that I would argue are broken. People who prey on children or harm others with no conscience. But somehow I think God sees even those people as hurting people in need of healing.
I’m not saying this world isn’t broken because I absolutely believe it is. When there are children starving in third world countries while we decide what new model car we want to buy, this world is broken. When there are parents who will risk separation from their children in an effort to gain a better life for them, away from abject poverty and gang violence, this world is broken. When children here in this country are starved and abused to the point of death and nobody notices, this world is broken.
And this broken world results in a lot of hurting people.
Friends, if you feel today that you are broken beyond repair, know that you are not. You are just hurting beyond reason. You don’t need to be fixed, you just need to be healed. God is the great physician and the great healer. God equips us, each of us, with the ability to be comforted by the love and connection with others. And God equips us, each of us, with the ability to love and care for others and to heal them through connection and through that love. God also provides amazing doctors and amazing medications and treatments when love and connection alone are not enough. And that’s okay too.
We are surrounded by hurting people.
But despite our pain, together we can be healed.
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