A matter of framing
In the Christian tradition, it’s really easy for us to get all hung up in the emotional juice of: Woe is me, I’m so broken! Look how broken I am! I’m a pitiful creature with little more to offer than a worm in the nearest dunghill! Woe is me!
I get it. To an extent, it’s healthy to have a clear view of the challenges and limitations of our human situation.
Very healthy, actually.
I just think we’re framing it in the wrong way.
Because here’s the thing…
God doesn’t make busted and broken stuff.
God does not suck at creation.
God has made an amazingly beautiful and intelligent design in you
and me
and them
and in the world.
And I think our framing around ‘brokenness’ is a faulty one.
I think that what we call “broken” are just cracks
that open us up to where light can come in.
Life scruffs up our surfaces, and though these rough parts sometimes snag each other, they also make us bond better.
By adding a narrative of “broken,” we wallow in a false state of reality and perpetuate our stuckness.
In Christ, we follow a risen Lord. All is redeemed. The wallowing is an echo of what once was, but now… It is finished.