God in our Brokenness

“Where is God? Where is He?” someone behind me asked. .. For more than half an hour [the child in the noose] stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed. Behind me, I heard the same man asking: “Where is God now?” And I heard a voice within me answer him: “Where is He? Here He is—He is hanging here on this gallows. . . .” Excerpted from Night by Elie Wiesel

The present world-scenario does much to dash the idealistic visions of the millennial generation that I am part of. No, the world isn’t all good. No, left to themselves, governments, general public, will act selfishly, manipulatively, rejecting accountability and transparency to serve their own vested interests. It is sad but true. As much as we want things to be better, they aren’t. Take the shocking suicide of of the famed and talented actor, Sushant Singh Rajput just a few days earlier. It has led to a flurry of voices within and outside the film world of exposing many of the undercurrents that happen in the world of glamour – nepotism, politics, harassment, bullying and the like. With the backdrop of the Covid-19 crisis, the race-equality conversation, the great divide between the rich and the poor in our country, it almost seems like a volley of revelation to affirm one thing – the world is broken. It is not perfect. We are work in progress.

We are a generation that wants to connect, vying for acceptance, relevance, significance, impact. As I browse on YouTube, my heart breaks at seeing some of the things that people say and do just to get more “likes”, “subscribers” – tripping on sensationalism and hype.

But the reality is, no matter what we do, there is this overwhelming sense that grips the heart of every person – the fear of never being good enough, of being inadequate. It’s paralyzing, numbing, depressing, terrifying and can keep a person from peaking.

Brene Brown, psychologist and counselor, was asked How would you describe the culture we are in now? What are we up against? – she said we are in a culture of deep scarcity – never good enough, rich enough, extraordinary enough, relevant enough – keeping people in shame.

That’s what we are up against. Enough is never enough. The Bible calls it the problem of the human heart. Like the prophet Jeremiah said, “They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Jeremiah 2:13 (NIV)

Ravi Zacharias put it this way, “The loneliest moment in life is when you have just experienced that which you thought would deliver the ultimate, and it has just let you down.” We’ve all been there.

What we need to know is that when God sees the brokenness of the world, he is not reacting in frustration or anger. His first reaction is brokenness – his heart breaks. He weeps. There’s a telling scene in John 11 as Jesus is standing before Lazarus’ tomb knowing full well he’s about to raise him from the dead. But the volume of human experience there breaks his heart. Sisters that prayed but could not see an answer. Death that separates, kills hopes and dreams. People waiting expectantly for a breakthrough. the loss of a friend whom he loved so much. Take a look at it below:

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.Jesus wept. John 11:32-35 (NIV)

That’s how God responds. Jesus responded but didn’t stop there. He went on to bring hope and healing in that situation. In John 9, when the disciples quizzed him about the reason a man was born blind he said,

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. John 9:3 (NIV)

The brokenness is all around us. We feel it in us, in relationships, in world events. We weep. God weeps with us. But in the midst of it, God is leading us to be lights, beacons of hope to a broken world. He cares. I pray that your life will be evidence to someone today that God cares. That he is a God who shows up in the midst of our brokenness.

#loneliness #doubt #love #pain #fear #broken