Beauty in brokenness

In graduate school I had a good friend who was known for her unconventional sermons. I always looked forward to sitting with her in the lunchroom to hear about the shocking, but always moving, sermons she delivered in her little Methodist Church. My favorite was one in which she propped up a sizable piece of glass, then hurled a huge rock through it. She then retrieved several of the larger pieces and held them up to a stained glass window. The point she made was that God makes beauty out of brokenness. God does not put our pristine sheet of glass back together, as if nothing happened. He takes our imperfection, our pain and grief, and makes something beautiful out of it, something through which God’s love can shine through onto everyone present.

One of our new choir tenors, Eli Tatum, recently shared a poem he wrote on this exact subject. Like many of us, Eli has experienced profound grief and loss. But through the power of God’s presence in his life he has begun to experience wholeness again. It inspired him to write a poem. Here is an excerpt:

When I’m alone you walk beside me

When I’m crying you hold me

When I’m screaming from my past

You remind me that you’re there

The strength you give me

The hope that you bring me

Reminds me that I’m here

I’m stronger now

Than I ever was before

As the years have passed

And I’ve gotten older

I look back

At all the things that I’ve done

Some are good,

Others bad

And for the past that made me sad

You’ve helped me overcome

All of my demons

My trials and tribulations

You stood by me through it all.

You brought me back to life

I’m whole now forever.

I’m always so moved when someone is able to be vulnerable enough to share their faith story. Even more so when they express their experience by creating a beautiful work of art, and when that artist is a member of our own faith community. It disarms me in a way that allows me to see God, too, and to trust that God will continue to make beauty out of brokenness in my own life, here, right now, just the way I am. I hope it does the same for you.

Ginny Chilton
Minister of Music