Brokenness

If there is one thing I have learned about living in community and living a life connected to social transformation of the world, it is this: it is HARD. Being a part of a pluralistic community that values diversity and openness to different perspectives is incredible, but with a greater diversity of opinions, spiritual practices and convictions about what faith is and means, there is an even greater challenge in setting spaces for communal faith practices. In particular, my intentional faith community in this Life Together program is facing difficulty in deciding whether or not a weekly group worship service should be required. One of our community members has dealt with anger and resentment toward the church in the recent years of his life, and feels that he is not ready to commit to a regular house worship service. This reality led to an intensely emotional discussion in our house yesterday evening. Feelings were hurt, tears were flowing, and confusion and uncertainty was present.

But you know what? I am so grateful for that. I am grateful to be able to have "real talk" with people who are so different from me but yet are all vessels of the creating and redeeming God who lives and works within and among us. I am grateful for weeping over the church's role in causing people to feel marginalized and isolated, and for having roommates who will hold me as I cry and say a prayer with me as we touch foreheads. I am grateful for doubt; doubt of who God is and how God works, for doubt in the role that we each play in this community. And I am grateful for laughter, and an ability to end a night of intensity with loud singing in the kitchen as we all washed dishes and wiped counters. 

Because for me, this is what the world aches for. The world aches for us to weep over injustice, to be able to see each other's sufferings and anxieties and hold them with care. The world aches for us to wake up to the needs and emotions and pains that are all around us, and to look on others with a love that goes far deeper than feel-good instant gratification. The world longs for our vulnerability.

Where our brokenness is, there God breaks in.