broken

I’ve been thinking a lot about brokenness. What a broken world we live in; what a broken person I am. I’ve been reading the writings of Henri Nouwen lately. He speaks so confidently, that you would never think that he considered himself broken. With the help of God’s redemptive grace; however, he was able to see through brokenness to completeness. In his writing, “All is Grace, “he writes: “The call to be grateful is a call to trust that every moment of our life can be claimed as the way of the cross that leads us to new life.”

What a bitter-sweet thought…new life by the way of the cross….I like the sound of “new life,” but I don’t like the “way of the cross” business. That speaks of pain, humiliation, sacrifice, and ultimately, death. It’s that whole “to have life, you have to die,” paradox. This is the way Jesus saw the way to complete life…it’s the way God sees the way to completeness.

In Colossians 1:18-20 (The Message) Paul says:
“(Jesus) was supreme in the beginning and-leading the resurrection parade-he is supreme in the end….So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe-people and things, animals and atoms-get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the Cross.”

As Henri saw it, it is through our gratefulness and trusting-no matter what comes our way-that we will be put back the way we were created to be.

So…thank you, Jesus. I’m trusting you,
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