In Chapter 1 of The End of Me, Kyle Idleman asserts the plain truth is “as much as we fight it, we long for the freedom to admit we’re broken.” We don’t, however, consciously realize our need to do it. While that lack of realization is true for each of us, it’s most certainly true for those people who least realize it.
Sociologist Brene Brown writes that all of us are one step away from being one of “those people”:
“. . . ‘those people’- the ones we don’t trust, the ones we pity, the ones we don’t let our children play with, the ones bad things happen to, the ones we don’t want living next door.”
Pastor Idleman adds that most of us know deep down we’ve got a lot of pieces that never seem to get mended, yet we go to great lengths to avoid honestly embracing of our condition. He states we’ve become the masters of illusion, experts at covering pain, and partakers of loneliness.
In our culture, brokenness is a hard sell. Few, if any, people would pay to attend a seminar helping them to experience brokenness. Kyle concludes:
“Brokenness . . . is, however, the one hope Jesus holds out for us, the inside-out, upside-down way that is somehow the only path that ultimately is right side up. Embrace the paradox: brokenness is the way to wholeness.”
Today’s question: How have you been able to embrace the paradox that brokenness is the way to wholeness? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Flaws are openings”
