Hope Amidst Brokenness

I was a quite naïve and happy little girl. Always smiling, always excited about people and life. I laughed a lot—demonstrated by many childhood pictures where my mouth was open because dad made me laugh. Not much could upset me.

As I grew up, various life circumstances shaped me and taught me that life is not always good. But over the last few years in particular, the reality of life has slammed me. I’ve observed and experienced brokenness everywhere. Both in my heart, in other people, and in the church.

Things aren’t so innocently happy as I once believed. Life has a way of making you keen to the ugliness of the curse. And it can leave you hardened, cynical, and skeptical.

Or it can push you to where true hope is found.

I interned in a residential facility for a year and I saw the destruction of sin and the curse in deeper ways. These women usually had very difficult backgrounds with sometimes unimaginable suffering. Understandably, there was a correlation with that suffering and many sinful life choices. But more than the dominating sin that usually characterized them, I saw myself in those women. I had some of the very same heart issues. And if not for God’s grace, I would be where they were, in bondage to my sin.

This is sobering and difficult. I hate seeing the destruction of sin. I hate having broken relationships. I hate when my sin hurts others. It's tempting for me to grow weary and lose hope in this life.

But isn't that where God wants us?

Not in the sense of wanting to die because life is so miserable, but realizing that this life is not the end-all, and recognizing that true hope and happiness will never be found here on earth.

See, your brokenness, your sin, your struggles—they all are meant to point you to a greater hope that is bigger than the joys of earth. This future hope reminds us that one day everything will be made right, and for the believer, we will experience lasting joy in God (Jn. 16:22).

But more than that, God is weaving something beautiful through the suffering you face today. We can't understand it because we only see the underside of the tapestry. Tim Keller speaks of it in this way:

“Everything sad is going to come untrue and it will somehow be greater for having once been broken and lost.” 

Isn't this a glorious thought? There is hope. Hope when a close friend abandons you. Hope when your health spirals out of control. Hope when someone sins grievously against you. Hope when you fail, again. For the believer, God is redeeming each and every difficult circumstance, every moment of sadness and hurt. And someday it will not only become "untrue", but the joy and gladness will be even sweeter than if we had never suffered. Hard to imagine, isn't it? What hope this gives us as we face the brokenness of life.

By God's grace, He is in the process of transforming those women at Vision of Hope, redeeming their suffering and sin and creating beautiful, spotless children of God. And He is doing the same for me. And for you.