“Despite what you may believe, you can disappoint people and still be good
enough. You can make mistakes and still
be capable and talented. You can let
people down and still be worthwhile and deserving of love. Everyone has disappointed someone they care
about. Everyone messes up, lets people
down, and make mistakes. Not because
we’re inadequate or fundamentally inept, but because we’re imperfect and fundamentally
human. Expecting anything different is
setting yourself up for failure.” -
Daniell Koepke
We tend to focus more on our
brokenness in life rather than giving a fair balance to our gifts and
strengths. Many times, we feel like we
don’t belong, not good enough or not loved.
That yearning for our definition of what’s perfect for us leaves no room
for what it means to be human. We want
to do things to make of our identity, but we are human ‘beings’ and not human
‘doings’ for a reason.
Another factor that ties us down
is fear. The fear of failure,
misunderstood, abandoned. The fear of being
a disappointment and being vulnerable.
Fear confines us so much that sometimes we fail to notice that the
opposite of fear is love. Iris Murdoch
wrote: “A common soldier dies without fear, Jesus died afraid!” He struggled with fear to the point of
sweating blood. But fear did not deter
him, love overcame that.
With all of the pressures of
life, we often break down and don’t know what to do with our brokenness. One of the songs that I ran into this weekend
that helps understand that dilemma is called “Japanese Bowl” by Peter Mayer. Peter’s lyrics talks about how he
is like one of the ancient Japanese bowls that is broken, but adorned with gold
between the cracks. This process is
known as Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer
resin mixed with gold, silver or platinum.
I find that to be a beautiful image.
The point was not to be afraid or ashamed and hide the cracks or throw
the broken pieces away. But to make them
shine even more! Each of our broken
pieces in life gives us an opportunity to look deep down inside of us and do
some self-reflection. No matter the
amount of cracks we amassed in our lives, the gold makes us whole again. This is the Paschal Mystery, Jesus himself
became broken at the cross for us to become whole again.
Even though we will never be the
same again with the cracks, we are indeed still whole. Through our experiences, we become more
beautiful and more unique than we were first created. Our broken fibers can be mended and put back
together artfully through time and persistence.
We are left with a unique mark in us made of gold. This is one way of celebrating our
humanity. The cracks remind us that we
are all humans and for it is God alone who can make perfect of our
weaknesses. So what can we do with our
brokenness? Embrace them and fill them
with gold.
