I was watching a break-up video on YouTube. Yeah, that says a lot about how far down the YouTube black hole I fell during the window of time I’d set aside for practicing self-care. Oops.
But she said something about brokenness that made me think. What if being broken isn’t a bad thing?
If there is any label I unhealthily put on myself through my chronic illness, it was “broken.” I spent so many days and nights weeping on the floor or into my pillow. Struggling to write encouraging posts while tears made it so that I couldn’t see the screen.
Because it was true. I was broken. Chronic illness broke me. Watching people I loved reach the utter end of their rope broke me. Grieving everything stolen from me broke me. But is being broken so bad?
It sucks. It hurts. It is unspeakably hard. But guys, God uses brokenness. I’ve seen it done. I’ve lived it. I think of the Japanese art of Kintsugi, where they repair broken pottery with gold. The end result is often far more beautiful than the original, unbroken creation. Why can’t the same be true with us? In 2 Corinthians 4:7 we are called jars of clay.
I think of the Jason Gray song, The Wound is Where the Light Gets In.
When we are broken, left completely helpless on our knees, it gives us the opportunity to glorify God. Light is able to get into places that never would have seen it otherwise. Psalm 34:8 says that God is close to the brokenhearted.
When we are broken, often we get stronger. When we are broken, we can experience a unique intimacy with God. When we are broken, we have an opportunity to bring glory to God which is our entire purpose on earth.
We weren’t created for the kind of brokenness that this fallen world and our own sin inevitably brings us in life. And we weren’t created to stay in brokenness or a victim mentality. But we were created to be humble and reverent before our King. We were created to submit and surrender to Him, relying on Him in everything. We were created to have our hearts hurt at injustice.
And if being broken is what it takes for that to happen in my life and heart, then . . . so be it. A past Sara would have shaken her head and cried at those words. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But looking back over my life, I think the brokenness — which sucked — was beautiful, and I’m glad God allowed it in my life.
I want to ask you the question: is being broken always a bad thing?
From my own experience, being broken taught me to stop focusing on myself and to turn my eyes on God and depend on Him and His will for my life instead of trying to control everything myself.
Yes! Same for me. Though that’s a hard lesson to learn.
I just want to say, this post makes me think of a girl named Claire. She had CF and through her whole life even to her death she was so so brave and she learned a real full life. She died at 21 after a lung transplant but even without her new lungs she lived a whole life by 21 and she was so so brave. Her chanel is caled the Clairity project and her second chanel is Claire Wineland.
She sounds like a really inspiring person, I’ll have to look up her channel. Thanks for sharing! 🙂