The headline last week read, “Lower Manhattan Thriving After 9/11, Study Says,” and the story talked about how it’s “back and better than ever” pointing to population, economic and other growth.
At first I thought, “That’s great!” And then I remembered a few things and it made even more sense…
One of the best parts of my all-time favorite novel, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway goes, “If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places…” Strong at the broken places. Lower Manhattan Thriving After 9/11.
Then I remembered, “But he (God) said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).”
Strong at the broken places. Lower Manhattan Thriving After 9/11. For when I am weak, then I am strong…
We know these are true. We’ve seen it many times. And yet, we are so used to avoiding our broken places – they make us uncomfortable, they can make us feel ashamed – we just want them to go away! We put a lot of effort to cover, hide, and numb them – not to much success though. I think part of the math is that if we “go there” to the broken places, we are just going to become more broken. But…
Strong at the broken places. Lower Manhattan Thriving after 9/11. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
It doesn’t help that we often think of “saints” as people who don’t have any broken places. I don’t think I ever thought that way, but I really don’t now. The most beautiful faith stories are the ones in which people saw the truth of their broken places, named them, let God in to heal them and then used that healing to comfort others. That’s the real deal! People who operate as if they have no broken places and who don’t need God or others are usually in the most pain and will only end up harming themselves even worse.
I know you and I have our broken places. Real and painful. Some are because of loss and grief. Some are because of being harmed or abused. Some are because we made destructive decisions. Some are because we are addicted. Some are because we are separated or divorced. Some are because of dysfunctional relationships. Some are because of a lost job or career. Some are because of heartbreak and losing heart. There is so much brokenness in our lives and in this world! Oh, how I wish it weren’t like this! But all I can tell you is how God works – works through – not around – all the brokenness. And, He often meets us most powerfully, most obviously, and most vividly at our broken places…
Strong at the broken places. Lower Manhattan Thriving after 9/11. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
If you are waiting for everything to go back to normal, if you are waiting to wake up as if it were all a dream, if you are waiting until you are better or “more together” – that may not work nor may not happen. But please know you already have everything you need for God’s healing and restoration to begin…
It doesn’t end at our broken places; it begins.
Amen!
PS – And I would go there with you if you needed me to…
Rev. Christopher B. Wolf
Isaiah 42:7
Christopher B. Wolf is the author of Giving Faith a Second Chance: Restarts, Mulligans and Do-Overs (2007) and the forthcoming, With You: Every Step of the Way (September, 2011).
“It is a matter of sharing and bearing the pain and puzzlement of the world so that the crucified love of God in Christ may be brought to bear healingly upon the world at exactly that point.” N.T. Wright
Living Water 