Broken is Beautiful?

I have a confession to make.  Sometimes all of the articles, comments, blogs, memes that float around the internet with the basic message "brokenness is beautiful" wear. me . out.

Here's what I think:

Brokenness is not beautiful.  It is called broken for a reason.

I certainly have brokenness and I certainly acknowledge that God is very adept at bringing beauty from my broken, but in and of itself, it is not beautiful.  It is ugly and hard and exhausting.

I suppose you could say it's a simple matter of semantics and, of course, that's what people really mean - they mean it's beautiful when brokenness gets fixed - of course they don't mean the actual, ugly part of broken is beautiful - of course not.

But, that's not how it reads, ya'll. (ya'll - slowly becoming a Virginian). ;)

There's something about this generation, or maybe just this time in history, that makes us all want to revel in the trials.  Makes us want to celebrate our imperfections.  Makes us want to wrap our arms around our struggles and let them define us.

It seems noble at the outtake.  We're all being honest, being vulnerable, embracing our process - I'm all for it - as long as it doesn't end there.

The end of all of this is supposed to be the part where we have victory over the broken, where wholeness rises up out of the ashes - and please don't tell me we will once we get to Heaven.  Please, just don't.  I serve a God who tells me that I will see His goodness in this day, in this time, in the land of the living.  And, I have already, on plenty of occassions.

But, I don't want to stop there.  I want to keep pressing forward and believing that there will be more victories, more repaired brokenness, more goodness.

Amen.