Healing the Brokenness

If you've ever fractured a bone in your body, you know how this disrupts your functioning and how necessary it is for you - and others - to make accommodations so you can heal. Imagine for a moment an uncomfortable scenario where these accommodations were not put into play and you were expected to course along as usual, moving around with that injured part and being as productive and effective as you would be under normal circumstances. This includes not having a cast, splint, brace, crutch or any healing measures to support you in your injured state.

What would that do to you? Can you imagine the physical pain you'd be in? And since being in pain deflates the spirit, can you fathom your emotional pain and your stress level, not to mention your risk of further injury? Would you heal properly and completely? Really, how could you? What would you be like going forward?

Still broken. Going through life not fully healed becomes your new normal. And what does this do to you, and to those around you?

People suffer fractures on the inside too. Though it might sound incredibly trite, hurt feelings deflate a person's spirit. The same questions and conditions highlighted above for a neglected physical injury apply equally to an emotional one. A big difference, though, is that emotional injuries can be hidden from view. Insidious in nature, they may not get the recognition, acknowledgement, and attention they need.

The demanding currents of life sweep us all along. The inhumane pace and the pressure to do more with less can sometimes result in the neglect of human beings of every age and stage who we share our spaces with, and who may be broken in body or spirit or both. If left untreated and unhealed, the brokenness of those who are aching, weakened, and discouraged can cause further injury - to the self, and to others.

Pain knows no geographical or political boundary. One broken person is a whole broken world - his or her world. When we pause in our tracks long enough to realize this (now would be a good time), we will hopefully come to understand that healing this world must begin with healing our selves. And only then, when we feel whole, can we look into the eyes of the person next to us and offer them hope that they may do the same. One person at a time, one world at a time.