Saturday, October 25, 2008

BROKENNESS


Lonely Chair.. by Mohamed Eissa (Pictures)

People nowadays are tired, many are frustrated. As a result, we use busyness as a way to keep depression at a distance. We seldom quite our brains and ask these very important questions: why are we so restless? Why are we anxious? Why are we lonely and feel so abandoned?

Our own BROKENNESS stems from all our psychological wounds, physical limitations and emotional needs. My professor once said that we are all broken because we come from imperfect families. As we grow up and insert ourselves into the adult world, we find a society that measures our worth with financial success, possessions, prestige, external beauty, power and fame. Sometimes, it is difficult to cope with these demands. There is competition, ambition and rivalry in most, if not all sectors of society.

As a result, we spend most of our times proving and working. The truth is, we cannot push fatigue for a long time. After we have done what is routinary, when we have the space and time to be creative, the fatigue comes back. We are tired because we are carrying something larger than ourselves. Jesus said "Come to me, you who are tired and feel the burden of life and you will discover that it is a light burden.

The first response to our brokenness is to face it squarely. Let us be aware of it and accept it. Befriend it. God only gives us something beneficial to us. This is his revelation.
No one can heal our wounds. It will always become painful when touched. However, when we can talk about it with a good friend, we feel better. Our wounds are therefore gifts in disguise. They lead us to a place where we can learn to let go of our comfort zones, to those familiar places and surrender our spirits to the hands of the One who understands and accepts us without limit.

Apart from our busyness, we need to just sit in God’s presence and show God all our dark spots. When we look into our selves and find so much weakness and vulnerability, we are reminded of God’s unconditional love.

The second response to our brokenness is to put it under the blessing. Our life is full of brokenness, broken relationship, broken promises, and expectations. Our reaction to this brokenness need not be a pattern of bitterness and resentment. Instead, we need to go to God ïs faithful presence in our lives again and again. In such place, we keep renewing our faith and keep trusting that the many setbacks of life move us forward to a greater bond with Him.

Indeed, we can find peace in our weakness- when we feel our hearts most broken, most insecure, most afraid. In such situation, our familiar ways of controlling and manipulating our world are being stripped away.

Our life is filled with losses. We choose to live our losses as passage to anger, blame, hatred and depression or we choose to let these losses be passage to something new, something wider and deeper. We ought to trust that suffering can and will lead us to a new life. It is true that the tears of grief and the tears of joy are not too far apart.

No comments: