Most recently I have found myself gravitating toward the theme of brokenness. What do wise people have to say about those uncomfortable and disorienting times when we come face to face with our frailty, our fallenness, and our limits? Frederick Buechner’s insight in The Sacred Journey: A Memoir of Early Days has grabbed me this week. Buechner writes,
But when it comes to putting broken lives back together … the human best tends to be at odds with the holy best. To do for yourself the best you have it in you to do — to grit your teeth and clench your fists in order to survive the world at its harshest and worst — is, by that very act, to be unable to let something be done for you and in you that is more wonderful still. The trouble with steeling yourself against the harshness of reality is that the same steel that secures your life against being destroyed secures your life also against being opened up and transformed by the holy power that life itself comes from. You can survive on your own. You can grow strong on your own. You can even prevail on your own. But you cannot become human on your own.
Amidst the many transitions and troubles of our lives Lord, let us be open to your invitation to go deeper and discover the radical difference between our human best and your holy best. You are our hiding place (Psalm 32:6-7).
So here are the questions I have been asking myself:
• In all honesty, how much of my “Christian” life is really more of an exercise in gritting my teeth and clenching my fists than in opening myself up to the Spirit and to others?
• Where is the Spirit asking me to lower my defenses and trust his good and wise leadership in my life?
