Walking the Tension Between Beauty and Brokenness

It’s been a few weeks, friends. I could go on and on (as many of my friends in the Southeast U.S. could) about the trials, exhaustion, and difficulties these last weeks have brought, as well as the unexpected kindness, compassion, and gratitude we have felt in the preparation and aftermath of a major hurricane that made direct impact on my hometown. 

These weeks have been filled with brokenness…and with beauty. 

Isn’t that a metaphor for all of life this side of heaven? It doesn’t have to be hurricane season for you to relate. The truth is, we’ve all either just come through a storm, are in a storm, or there is one ahead on the horizon. 

While it is all too common for people to look for their hope in the ever changing tides of their predicaments, the gospel of Jesus has given us something far better: hope in a Person that is an anchor for our souls, regardless of the storm waters before us. 

Here are 4 quick reminders to help us walk well in the tension between beauty and brokenness.

1.   Be honest about what feels broken.

There is a popular (yet misguided) tendency in Christian subculture to sanitize struggle behind pithy platitudes that sound faithful and courageous, while exercising neither faith nor courage. It isn’t devotion to God to hide what’s falling apart in your world behind a plastic mask of how you think a ‘good Christian’ should act in your situation. It’s just dishonest.  

Read through the Psalms and you will see questions, doubts, and complaints about the seeming silence or absence of God filling many stanzas of our spiritual ancestors’ songbooks. If we truly desire intimate relationship with God, it must begin with unveiled vulnerability concerning our deepest longings and our deepest struggles. David himself wrote, “I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him” (Psalm 142:2). 

 God can bring beauty from our ashes, but we have to be honest about the ashes. 

Ask: “What feels broken, unfinished, or undone? How am I (honestly) feeling about this?”

2.   Enthrone the God of faithfulness, not your feelings. 

One of the greatest gifts God gave us was the ability to experience emotion. Joy, laughter, warm affection…even pain; they are all gracious endowments bestowed upon us from our benevolent Creator. But here’s the problem: 

Our feelings are a tremendous gift, but a terrible ‘god.’ 

What we feel can be a most unreliable navigator for our souls. As the writer of Hebrews promised, “everything that can be shaken will be shaken,” and our feelings are often the very thing to waver, shake, and crack against the pressure of unfulfilled expectations. They are like the groaning Israelites which see the first sign of a desert mere yards outside their slavery in Egypt, and shout to turn back. We would be wise to go back to the ancient wisdom of Solomon: 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 

When your feelings try to lie to you, stop and see the faithfulness your God has put on display all around you. Look to the wonders of creation, all echoing his goodness, his beauty, his presence, and his power. Dive into his Word and re-anchor your flailing feelings upon his character and his promises. Most of all, remember who he has been in your life: his grace, his forgiveness; the prayers he has answered, everything that is different because he stepped into the room. 

Ask: “Where have I seen God be faithful in my life?” 

3.   Cast your cares on God. 

“Cast all your cares upon him, because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7

At first glance, this may look like just like being honest about your brokenness, but it actually goes MUCH deeper. Here, with our complaint before the Lord, and with our soul reminded of his goodness, presence, and power, we move to intentionally make our requests of the Lord. This is where we enact faith to ask God to move.

Jesus promised that anything we ask “in His Name,” he would most assuredly do. Here, he isn’t referring to a magic formula to affix to our prayers, asking “in Jesus’ name” (as the seven sons of the priest Sceva learned well). He is saying that any place we agree in faith with anything that is in accordance with his heart, his purposes, his power, his goodness, his wisdom, his timing, and his desires, he will release it on earth through our faith-filled requests. 

Here, three things are of paramount importance. First, we have to boldly approach the throne of grace with confidence and speak without apology concerning our request and our need (see Hebrews 4:16). Second, (and the most neglected process in our prayer), we need to be still and listen to what the Father is saying. Jesus only spoke on earth what he heard the Father saying from heaven. Finally, we need to continue to stand in faith on every good purpose we believe God desires, even when we don’t yet see movement on earth. The verses in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus tells us to “Ask, Seek, and Knock” are in the present continuous tense, meaning, “Keep Asking, Keep Seeking, Keep Knocking.” This isn’t striving, but actively exercising the muscles of your faith to elevate his faithfulness above what you feel and what your eyes see. This is normal faith. Don’t lose heart.

Ask: “What is it that you long for the Lord to do?” Pause and ask him what he has to say about this and listen." 

4.   Choose Worship and Gratitude from the middle of the chaos. 

What do we do in the tension between beauty and brokenness? We get honest about what’s broken. We remind our souls of God’s faithfulness. We pour out our hearts to him and we listen for heaven’s report. Sometimes, your request will be answered almost instantaneously, as you find yourself like the healed beggar, ‘leaping, and jumping, and praising God.’ But sometimes, you will walk this process, finding God’s peace covering your heart, but feeling no closer to any tangible answers for your questions. What then? 

Worship, friend. 

Always worship. Thank God. Count your many blessings; name them one by one. 

If you wait until everything is going your way to worship, you will miss countless opportunities to see God at work all around you. Plus, when the dust settles, you will find that it wasn’t God you were building your trust upon, but rather your own comfort. We are not home yet, and in this world we will have trouble. But take heart. He’s already overcome the world. He is on the scene presently bringing you to complete wholeness, and with your own eyes, you will see the Goodness of God in all of his splendor. 

That means that you are free to join Paul and Silas, singing from prison cell, and Deborah singing from a battlefield. You can link arms with David, writing Psalms from the shadows of a cave, and with Hannah hoisting prayers of hope in the midst of barrenness. You can find yourself alongside Mary, who found herself pregnant with faith when most would’ve been consumed by fear. 

Here’s the counterintuitive truth: we need to intentionally seek gratitude most when things in life are not going our way. It’s easy to praise when you feel like you’re winning. The life of faith is marked by getting still to hear heaven’s report when the sirens of the world are wailing all around you. 

Thank God in the waiting. I promise, you won’t be disappointed.

Ask: “What are 5 reasons I have right now to be filled with gratitude and thanksgiving? Stop and thank God for each one, allowing worship to reside where worry wanted to set up residence."