Where is God in Brokenness?

Life has been a whirlwind of late. Financial strains, life circumstance, not feeling in control of it all (that last one is hard for me to deal with).Last week, the Nieces were in Nashville, TN visiting family and friends. I was looking forward to a fun time of catching up with folks from my old hometown. Yet it seemed that sadness pervaded.

We stayed with some very good friends who just a few months ago lost their baby an hour after he was born. Several late-night talks with them were difficult and sad and heart-wrenching.

We had some extended family news come our way that shook life circumstances for Heather’s side of the family.

A good family friend, mentor, and church leader at my old stomping grounds unexpectedly took his own life.

All of this during our “vacation.”

I have been experiencing a lot of sadness, brokenness, doubting, and feelings of helplessness of late.

Yet here’s what I’m learning … God has a way of weaving beauty out of brokenness and despair.

I’m not one of those who blames God for everything. I mean, if God really controlled everything with the way the word is today, that’s not a God I could worship, much less serve. No, it seems that scripture and experience tells us that evil just happens. Yet in the midst of evil, God longs to be in relationship with his creation. And if we let him, God will create something surprising and wonderful out of the shards of sadness, grief, despair, and hopelessness that invade our lives from time to time.

For instance, with the happenings I mentioned above … We got to spend quality time with some best friends during their dark days of anger and despair. We got to hug and be present and just listen. All in all experiencing a deeper level of friendship … and they did too.

We see my wife’s family pulling together with others in their faith community to truly seek God’s leading in their situation.

We were able to be with and comfort the family of our friend. We remembered his actions of love and compassion throughout his life. We saw his young grandson turn to God’s story in the days that followed in order to make sense of the situation.

God is weaving something beautiful, even when all seems lost. God is faithful to love us and care for us, even when we feel abandoned. God is relentless in his activity to create wonder and hope, even when we feel like he has nothing to work with.

This is the God I worship. This is the God I serve. This is the God I’m anticipating will surprise me again soon in wonderful ways.

SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
How is God taking your brokenness and making something surprising and wonderful out of it?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
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Asking Nothing From God

So, if you were listening in on Sunday’s teaching, I suggested a little exercise for this week:  don’t ask anything from God but only express love and adoration for God.

I modified this a bit for myself this week … I considered it necessary to continue to pray for others.  But I have asked nothing for myself.

This has been extrememly difficult.  It has opened new ways of praying for me.  For instance: how many ways can I express love for God?  It has required some very intense searching and significant meditation.  It has caused me to be very grateful — and recognize that gratefulness — for simple things … for every thing.

I have also reached the humbling conclusion about how selfish my prayer life often is.  Oh sure, I thank God, praise God, offer something to God, pray for others.  But a large portion of my prayers up until this week had been spent on myself.  That’s partly due to the life circumstances I’m facing these days.

But it is a trend that I do not want to continue.

The Psalms have come alive to me in a unique way through this exercise.  I see that they are riddled with selfish requests, but also some of the most sublime expressions of profound love for God.  This runs the gamut of human prayer.

How wonderful that our family scrapbook of Scripture contains such honest prayer.

SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
Are you or have you ever tried this exercise?  What is/was your experience?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
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