Posts Tagged: nourishing power of aphorisms

“Of Brokenness and Light”

On June 12, 2019 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“When you’re broken, you let the light in.”  (Jennifer Blasi)

I met a lady at the park the other day, while I was reading and waiting for a friend who has asked me to be a spiritual mentor to him.  In the course of our conversation, I discovered that she wanted to be a counselor.  However, life happens.  Sometimes, our dreams get put on hold.

Nonetheless, I believe that she will one day be a counselor—and a very good one, at that.  In fact, she is already a counselor, though not fully trained.  In the course of our conversation, she made the comment that leads off this post.  “When you’re broken, you let the light in.”  When I asked her where she had heard or read that, she said, “I think I just thought it.”

Some sayings stay with you and nourish you.  I found her aphorism very strengthening.

Sometimes, it’s the broken people who let the light in.  Sometimes, they are broken from the outside, through no fault of their own.  You would think that such brokenness would let into their lives a nightmare of darkness.  Sometimes, it does.

But I can think of people who become so translucent—or even transparent—that they are flooded with light.  I knew a man whose alcoholic father beat him and his mother mercilessly on a regular basis.  Yet this man became one of the kindest, gentlest man I’ve ever known.  He made a huge contribution to my life, to the lives of many young people, and to his community.

But, of course, sometimes we break ourselves.  And yet, even then, the light sometimes invades.  I have friends who have done great harm to themselves and others.  But they came to terms with their destructive patterns.  In old-fashioned language, “they repented, and were changed.”  They became better friends, better mothers and fathers, better employers and employees.  They became better people.  They were so full of light that, if I had not known them before the Change, I would never have believed that they were ever full of anything but light.

And the most wonderful thing about the light shining into broken things and people is that the light also shines through broken things and people.

Jesus said, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”  (Matthew 5:16, English Standard Version)

Brokenness may seem the opposite of good deeds.  But perhaps the best good deed of all is to allow God’s light to shine into our brokenness, and through us to others.

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