Broken

We live in a fallen world.  A world full of broken people whose lives are being shattered by the choices being made.  I look all around me and I see sadness, heartache, misery, pain, hurt, denial.  The past few days all this has been even more evident and I feel heavy and a bit hopeless.  Even in the midst of my own seemingly impossible situation, hopelessness is not something I have felt for months.

I picked Jackson up from Good News club and was met with familiar faces that went to my high school.  They too, have children around my son's age who attend the same school he does and are a part of this uplifting club.  The faces I saw of my former classmates seemed tired, lacking energy, and seemed beaten down by life itself.  After a short conversation it was clear they too had lives that had not been without intense emotional trauma which resulted in families being ripped apart.  It was also clear that there didn't seem to be an end in sight.  Brokeness that just keeps on yielding more brokeness.    I ran into another friend on this same day and she cried as she told me about her son who has been hurt by the religious culture.  I met another friend for lunch today and she too had her own sad news to tell in multiple parts of her life, addiction, divorce, estranged parents.  My heart has never been more empathetic for these family situations and I weep on the inside, I silently cry out to God as I listen to these stories of sadness.  Such pain that trickles down to each person involved with the ones that are the epicenters of pain.

But this is our fallen world.  This is us having a free will.  Choices to make.  Each of us is responsible for our own actions, our own emotions, and our own responses to how others treat us, our own choices.  We have many choices to make on a daily bases.  With each choice we make which allows the enemy to win, more pieces break off of us as well as those around us.  If we continue along this path without God we will only continue to drag others into our brokenness from past pains, it is a vicious cycle that just keeps on spiraling out of control.  Fingers pointed will only allow us to stay where we are, and that has never been the goal.  God gave you the tools, he gave you his truths, yes we are broken but that allows us to see the beauty of God to restore us.