Broken Places

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”

                                                                                ― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Don’t worry, I know this sounds really, REALLY dark and it is dark.  Just the other day, my spiritual director and I were talking about this quote and this is the image the came in to my mind.  It would be very easy to take this quote above and let it drive our lives to live in a constant place of hopelessness.  Honestly, some days feel that way for most of us.  But the hope that we talked about in this quote is that WHAT comes through broken places?

LIGHT.

Light gets in to the broken places.

Which brought thoughts and memories of verses that I have learned throughout my life.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.  Isaiah 9:2

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:5

⁸Shepherds were in the fields near Bethlehem. They were taking turns watching their flock during the night. ⁹ An angel from the Lord suddenly appeared to them. The glory of the Lord filled the area with light, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ The angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid! I have good news for you, a message that will fill everyone with joy.   Luke 2:8-10

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  John 8:12

The world is broken and we live in this brokenness everyday.  We are guaranteed that we will experience this brokenness and the weight of this experience can be unbearable.  It can break us.  But isn’t the brokenness of this world the very reason that Jesus came to this earth?  We aren’t waiting in this season of Advent for everything to be fixed.  We are waiting for “God with us”.  GOD.  WITH.  US.  Emanuel.  The light of the world, coming in to our dark places and our brokenness.  He is with us there.

We can choose to look at this above quote as the darkness that it is.  We can choose to stay there after we have been broken by this world or the people in it.  But we can also choose to see the hope-not that everything will be fixed (not on this earth anyway) or that the brokenness will stop.  But we can choose to remember that we are not alone.  Jesus came in to this world for the very reason to be in the brokenness with us.