Cracks

“Everything has a crack in it. That’s how the light gets in.”

~ Leonard Cohen

If ever you’ve felt lost or broken, you know that, at times, it can drive you to feel dark and even hopeless. In our plastic-smile culture, we intrinsically know that darkness or despair is not acceptable, and that if we don’t fake our way through these dark nights of the soul, we’re likely to be advised to seek professional help and take prescribed medication to numb our feelings and be more productive. Or, we administer our own self-medication through food, sex, work, drugs, or alcohol.

There is a plethora of problems with either course. The major problem being that both routes not only numb us to loss and sorrow, but also joy and deep connection with ourselves, others, and God. In other words, the more we try to anesthetize loss and suffering, the more we fall under an emotional and spiritual general anesthetic.

Susan Cain writes in Bittersweet that to become truly alive (aka, the abundant life Jesus promises) we must not just walk or breathe our way through sorrow and the cracks of life, but truly accept them. Wait for the gift of life, meaning, and our true purpose (what I call our original beauty) to come through those very pains. Light through our cracks of loss and longing.

Isaiah 53 tells us “…by his wounds we are healed…” Having Christ within us, our own wounds could not only be the catalyst to bring about our healing but also to become what Henri Nouwen called “Wounded Healers”.

On our Thursday Free Zoom meeting this week, we will explore ways to practice this principle and draw closer to our original beauty, transforming our suffering into an offering.

Join us at 11 Central Time every Thursday with this login info: