Brokeness?

[tulc]

I (well Mrs.tulc actually) found this quote and thought it was really good:
Jesus was broken on the cross. He lived his suffering and death not as an
evil to avoid at all costs, but as a mission to embrace. We too are broken.
We live with broken bodies, broken hearts, broken minds or broken spirits.
We suffer from broken relationships.

How can we live our brokenness? Jesus invites us to embrace our brokenness
as he embraced the cross and live it as part of our mission. He asks us not
to reject our brokenness as a curse from God that reminds us of our
sinfulness but to accept it and put it under God's blessing for our
purification and sanctification. Thus our brokenness can become a gateway to
new life.
-Henri Nouwen
What do you think about it?
tulc(really likes Nouwen) :)

[Daniels]

Psm 147:3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.

[ZiSunka]

I think it's good to recognize that every human being gets hurt during their lifetimes. No one leaves earth without getting hurt.

But thankfully, God doesn't leave us broken like he found us. He makes us into whole new creatures, gives us a new beginning and heals and sanctifies us over time.

I don't think we embrace our brokenness, because embracing something keeps it tightly held. Instead, I think we tip our hats in acknowledgement of our brokenness like we we would acknowledge an old bygone acquaintance and go on with our lives.

[tulc]

All good points of course. I think what touched me though was, yes He has healed things in our lives, but some of that healing isn't going to be complete until we stand before Him in heaven.
For instance in the community that I live in we have several people with pretty severe handicaps, do they have to keep to themselves until there's a miracle healing? Do I have to pretend I'm not scarred by some of the things I've done in my life? Or do I say "Jesus loves me, as messed up as I am, and He loves you too just as you are, together we can help each other in our weaknesses to be stronger!"
Does that make sense?
tulc(thanks for your replies by the way!) ;)

[Flynmonkie]

He loves you too just as you are, together we can help each other in our weaknesses to be stronger!"
Does that make sense?
tulc(thanks for your replies by the way!) ;)
Amen!:amen: The key is getting everyone to get that! ;)

[FallingWaters]

It's a very beautiful thought. I like it.

[Joykins]

You can't be in any real relationship unless you're willing to be vulnerable. That includes your relationship with God.

[Sword-In-Hand]

My pastor has quoted this many times and its so true. "Brokeness on earth, creates openess in heaven."

Growing up as a baby Christian I wondered why people prayed for brokeness and now I understand. Brokeness always brings us closer to God.

[Sweet Pea]

Good quote :)


For God to explain a trial would be to destroy its purpose, calling forth simple faith and implicit obedience.
... Alfred Edersheim


"The problem of evil assumes the existence of a world-purpose. What, we are really asking, is the purpose of suffering? It seems purposeless. Our question of the why of evil assumes the view that the world has a purpose, and what we want to know is how suffering fits into and advances this purpose. The modern view is that suffering has no purpose because nothing that happens has any purpose: the world is run by causes, not by purposes."
W. T. Stace

[FallingWaters]

Good quote :)
For God to explain a trial would be to destroy its purpose, calling forth simple faith and implicit obedience.
... Alfred EdersheimI like this. I agree to a certain extent, but on the other hand, when I'm experiencing a trial, I want to know why, so I can hurry up and learn my lesson and get it over with.

[handmaiden97]

I would like to recomend a book on this very subject. "embracing brokeness" It has really challenged me not to fight the hard times in life. not to simply go throught them dragging my heals the whole way but to yeild to what God is doign in them and to grow through them! I cant reacl who the author was but I have read the book 2 0r 3 times.

[FallingWaters]

Is it this one?
Embracing Brokenness: How God Refines Us Through Life's Disappointments (Paperback)
by Alan E. Nelson (http://www.amazon.com/s/103-4832325-5367839?ie=UTF8&index=books&rank=-relevance%2C%2Bavailability%2C-daterank&field-author-exact=Alan%20E.%20Nelson)

[JPPT1974]

I like this. I agree to a certain extent, but on the other hand, when I'm experiencing a trial, I want to know why, so I can hurry up and learn my lesson and get it over with.

Yeah sometimes I want to get
Mine over and done as well
That is my middle name is
Out of the way and over and done!

[handmaiden97]

Is it this one?
Embracing Brokenness: How God Refines Us Through Life's Disappointments (Paperback)
by Alan E. Nelson (http://www.amazon.com/s/103-4832325-5367839?ie=UTF8&index=books&rank=-relevance%2C%2Bavailability%2C-daterank&field-author-exact=Alan%20E.%20Nelson)
yep this is it
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/1576833135.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/1576833135/ref=dp_image_0/102-7164286-4193732?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books)

[ZiSunka]

For instance in the community that I live in we have several people with pretty severe handicaps, do they have to keep to themselves until there's a miracle healing?

I don't see why a disabled person would have to hide or wait for healing.

God made them who they are, allowed them to have these disabilities, not to harm them or isolate them from everyone else, but to give everyone the opportunity to interact with people whose disabilities are visible. In some ways, we minister to them, in some ways, they minister to us.

My nephew, as you all know, is profoundly deaf. In every other way, he is completely normal, but for some people, his deafness makes him less of a person. One of my neighbors once asked me, "Is he slow at everything or does he just talk like he is retarded?" At first, this question really irked me. But then I realized my neighbor had never been around a person with a disability before and he didn't understand that deaf people are completely human. To my neighbor, disability makes someone something other than human. I stopped being angry and started having compassion for my neighbor because his disability is that he doesn't have a grasp on the humanity of every person. He beleives that some people are more human than others.

My nephew is my hero. He grew up to be a very fine young man dispite the way he is usually treated by hearing people. Whenever someone asks me my greatest accomplishment, I never say that I have two degrees or that my parks have won awards and brought warring neighbors together in peace, although those are things to be proud of. I always say my greatest accomplishment is that I am Greg's aunt.

Disabled people shouldn't wait for "healing" to fully live among us. We are the ones who need to be adjusted to allow ourselves to feel completely comfortable with them. We need to have our brains healed of the prejudices we feel against them. They are who God made them to be, and when we feel negative against them, we are feeling negative against the handiwork of God.

[tulc]

Disabled people shouldn't wait for "healing" to fully live among us. We are the ones who need to be adjusted to allow ourselves to feel completely comfortable with them. We need to have our brains healed of the prejudices we feel against them. They are who God made them to be, and when we feel negative against them, we are feeling negative against the handiwork of God.

I agree! :)
tulc(hopes you didn't think he was saying other wise) :sorry:

[seebs]

Lambslove, can't you PLEASE turn rep back on, just for a few minutes?

My spouse and I are not particularly mentally healthy people. Between us, we have a variety of issues ranging from mild autism-spectrum "disorders" and bipolar disorder to gender dysphoria.

But we are fine, because we accept that we are gonna have a few things to overcome now and then. Things work out.

But I think it's important to understand that God is not accepting "the person I would be if I were better" but "the person I am now". If something can be cured, or treated, or whatever, that can happen only once you've accepted that it's there.

How much healthier will you get treated by a doctor who won't admit that you're sick? He has to accept you as a patient as you are to treat you.

Some things, maybe there's no real treatment for. You don't get cured... But that's okay.

In coming to terms with our own issues, we may help others find strength to deal with their own.

[Caedmon]

Lambslove, can't you PLEASE turn rep back on, just for a few minutes?

My spouse and I are not particularly mentally healthy people. Between us, we have a variety of issues ranging from mild autism-spectrum "disorders" and bipolar disorder to gender dysphoria.

But we are fine, because we accept that we are gonna have a few things to overcome now and then. Things work out.

But I think it's important to understand that God is not accepting "the person I would be if I were better" but "the person I am now". If something can be cured, or treated, or whatever, that can happen only once you've accepted that it's there.

How much healthier will you get treated by a doctor who won't admit that you're sick? He has to accept you as a patient as you are to treat you.

Some things, maybe there's no real treatment for. You don't get cured... But that's okay.

In coming to terms with our own issues, we may help others find strength to deal with their own.
I like to think that the Church is a hospital for sinners. At every mass, we include a specific prayer in our spoken petitions for "all who are sick or broken in some way." The beauty of this is that we are all "sick or broken in some way." So we are praying for each other, and ourselves, everyone, all together, in a specific, necessary way, which brings to light the fragility of the human condition and forces us to understand, and have compassion on, every one of us, especially ourselves.

Something my priest told me - which I try to remember when I start judging myself savagely - is that prayer (usually) will not fix the problem, but it will fix you, in that it makes you able to endure the hardship. This is very frustrating for me, and it's taken a long time for me to even begin to come to terms with it. Sometimes I still falter and punish myself unjustly, but I am getting better at it, one day at a time, one infinitesimally small step after another.

[ZiSunka]

gender dysphoria

What's gender dysphoria? I've never heard this term before.

[FallingWaters]

I don't see why a disabled person would have to hide or wait for healing.

God made them who they are, allowed them to have these disabilities, not to harm them or isolate them from everyone else, but to give everyone the opportunity to interact with people whose disabilities are visible. In some ways, we minister to them, in some ways, they minister to us.

My nephew, as you all know, is profoundly deaf. In every other way, he is completely normal, but for some people, his deafness makes him less of a person. One of my neighbors once asked me, "Is he slow at everything or does he just talk like he is retarded?" At first, this question really irked me. But then I realized my neighbor had never been around a person with a disability before and he didn't understand that deaf people are completely human. To my neighbor, disability makes someone something other than human. I stopped being angry and started having compassion for my neighbor because his disability is that he doesn't have a grasp on the humanity of every person. He beleives that some people are more human than others.

My nephew is my hero. He grew up to be a very fine young man dispite the way he is usually treated by hearing people. Whenever someone asks me my greatest accomplishment, I never say that I have two degrees or that my parks have won awards and brought warring neighbors together in peace, although those are things to be proud of. I always say my greatest accomplishment is that I am Greg's aunt.

Disabled people shouldn't wait for "healing" to fully live among us. We are the ones who need to be adjusted to allow ourselves to feel completely comfortable with them. We need to have our brains healed of the prejudices we feel against them. They are who God made them to be, and when we feel negative against them, we are feeling negative against the handiwork of God.So very profoundly true.

I was one who was brought up thinking like that neighbor, but I have since learned to see disabled people deserving of the same dignity and respect as anyone else- and I learned that by being exposed to disabled people.

[FallingWaters]

What's gender dysphoria? I've never heard this term before.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_dysphoria

[ZiSunka]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_dysphoria

Ah! Got it now. Thanks for the link.