Sound of Surviving Blog

I think sometimes we let society tell us who we should be and define our worth. The world tells us we can’t be beautiful if we’re broken, and that our worth can’t be very much. After all, who uses a broken tool?

But even though we’re told that brokenness equals not good enough, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul assures us that God can still use us when we’re broken, shattered pieces and all. Because we get to show others that, despite all we’ve endured, God is still using us, He is still good. In Psalm 51:17, David affirms this, “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, you will not despise”. This reminds us that God loves and can use each part of us, even those we don’t deem worthy.

I think society pushes this idea that broken can’t exist in the same place as beauty or as strength, the world tries to fix us, to make us less broken, more whole, more presentable. It tries to convince us of the narrative our lives should tell, one more presentable, that doesn’t make others uncomfortable, one that fits in a nice, neat little box. But brokenness and beauty can coexist because sharing that brokenness, that pain, with others, having the strength that it takes to do that, is so profoundly beautiful. And because of this, we get to realize that true beauty doesn’t look like what the world tells us it should be.

We see that a scarred body, a crushed soul, a fragmented heart, and all the imperfections within leave room for His light to shine through on the outside. All the opened-up parts of us, missing pieces, allow us to grow, to see what God has been trying to show us all along. We realize that maybe, the most authentic beauty of all is reminding others to embrace their brokenness, each and every one of its tiny shards.