Broken and Shattered

The words poured onto the page as I wrote our story for the world to see. Two years later, I held our story; my story in the form of a book; a book that holds the very deepest parts of my family’s story. It holds the very deepest and vulnerable parts of my identity as the daughter of a woman who lives daily with a mental illness. For so long, that story stayed locked in the depths of my heart. Yet that story; my own story of brokenness is what makes me who I am as a beloved child of God.

And when I look at the world around me, I cannot help but see so much brokenness; so many shattered dreams and hopes. I watch as the fathers in Aleppo cry out for safety for their children. Like Rachel, I weep for these dear beloved souls.  I catch my breathe for just a moment and ask for the Lord’s kingdom to come; for Christ to rend the heavens and come NOW. Aleppo is shattered and broken. What are we willing to risk for these dear beloved children of God? Does their freedom and safety mean anything to us OR would we much rather stay in our own comfort zones? I pray that we come together as our own comfort zones are shattered and broken.

I watch this world and all I can think is. Our world is fractured. Our world is broken. Our world is shattered. What are willing to risk to bring it back to wholeness? I am reminded of the Japanese art form “kintsugi” where they take gold laquer and laquer the cracks. The cracks remind us of the pieces brokenness and helps to shine the light through it.

Without my own story, I wouldn’t be who I am. I wouldn’t be Tara; Beloved, Broken, Blessed Child of God. Without your stories, you wouldn’t be who you are either. In the midst of our own shattered dreams and hopes, we are all beloved, broken, and blessed children of God who are ALL called to be loved in this broken world.

Are we willing to look at each other’s cracks in the midst of our own brokenness? Are we willing to understand how we are all broken? Are we willing to let ourselves proclaim God’s love and grace in this broken world? Are we willing to be on Jesus’ right and left side as he hangs on the cross?

“Suddenly they shouted, ‘What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?'”–Matthew 8:29

In the midst of my own family’s journey with mental illness, there are times I cried out to God; cried out from the deepest parts of me; with the most visceral words I could utter to speak. There were times I wondered if God was trying to make me stronger; trying to teach me something. All I know now is my own brokenness; my own shattered hopes and dreams remind me that God promises to come again; to come down and rend the heavens. And so in the midst of this very shattered broken world, I find myself clinging so tightly to that promise!

Will the Lord come soon to rend the heavens OR will it be too late?

Will this world continually be a place of deep brokenness and shattered dreams and hopes?

Will we seek to shatter the walls that divide us?

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