beauty that can only be found in brokenness

From a friend of a friend I came across this very treasured quote once more: 

“Just as there is more air in a jar of marbles than there is glass, 
or more space in a handful of sand than there is silicon, 
so there is more silence in a cacophony than there is noise.  
Listen for it, look for it, let it become the language of your heart.” 
— Keren Dibbens-Wyatt, Recital of Love (2020)

Within the Henri Nouwen quote, which is one that complements the Dibbens-Wyatt quote magnificently, is really the secret to life.  Because ministry has its goal in helping people accept reality, the acceptance of reality has its goal in living a deeper truth, one that is actually freeing.  Both quotes reveal this — the truer, freer, bolder life comes only through an acceptance, and a celebration, of brokenness.

It’s not until we enter a period of pain — or shudder the thought, a construct of being that has us living in an unrecoverable state — that we realise or recognise that within that which we wouldn’t have ever chosen is a kernel of life that previously stood inaccessible.  We actually can’t see the freedom that beckons on the other side of loss until we’re forlorn in the loss itself.  Until we have been catapulted into grief, we do not realise or recognise the life beyond death; the truer recognition of the resurrection power and life manifest of Jesus, and that the truer life remains ever dormant until something has died.

We cannot have this life until we have tasted his death.  There is no reward without taking the risk to lose all to gain all.  As martyr Jim Eliot (1927–1956) said, “A person is no fool to give up what they cannot keep to gain what they cannot lose.”  This is the redemption of a compensation that only God can give having suffered well for a divine purpose.

Could it be that we have been spending all our time and money on things we haven’t needed, that we haven’t had time to use, that had delivered to us and to others literally no value, that have left us feeling lonelier than ever?  It’s not until we have to face the concept of losing everything that God re-orders our priorities.

Suddenly in that time, we are able to begin a search for ‘the something better’ within that which has broken us; the silence within the cacophony that appears on the surface only as noise.  It’s not until we are destitute and desperate that we begin searches that we have forever put off.  We didn’t need to go there, until now.  And now we cannot put it off any longer.

Imagine what God has prepared for each of us beyond the realm of this life that can be full of pain, and yet God has sequestered a portion of it for our lived experience, now.  There is no greater miracle then feeling whole within brokenness; being content, as the apostle Paul would say, in either plenty or in lack (Philippians 4:12).

This maturity in brokenness is the essence of what God is calling us to.  So let us not be afraid of the pain that has come our way, and let us instead resolve to see it as God’s invitation to the deeper life that is available this side of heaven.  Believe this and God will certainly give it to you by faith.

Nevermore will we see God living and active in our mortal lives than through our brokenness.