The topic for this week’s ‘Photo Walk Challenge’ is ‘broken’. The ‘photo walk challenge’ is undertaken by a group of friends who commit to going for a good walk at least once a week. We take photos on different themes and share them in our closed group on social media. It motivates us to get outside and move, it connects us and it allows us glimpses into one another’s lives.
Today I chose to incorporate a prayer time into my walk. “Is there anything that you would show me, Lord?” I asked. Not surprisingly, the theme of ‘broken’ kept surfacing as I noticed things around me.
Sad … but bad?
I took a boring black travel cup with me on my walk and indulged in a fragrant, creamy coffee along the way. Until yesterday I had a bright, cheerful red and green travel cup.
I hate throwing things out. That colourful cup had been places with me. I’d had it since 2015 … and maybe even earlier. It wasn’t even properly broken. But every time I drunk out of in recent months, coffee would run down my chin, despite the lid being screwed on.
Sometimes, ‘broken’ is bad. Terrible things happen, despite our best efforts. We hurt one another. Creation is suffering a curse. That is clear.
But ‘broken’ is not always bad. My cup had served me well. It was never going to last forever.
Usually, though, ‘broken’ is sad, and that is appropriate.
Beauty in brokenness
I often think of the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold when I think of ‘beauty in brokenness’. Today, however, it was a plain old suburban fence that caught my attention.
At the risk of over-spiritualising the matter, I wonder if there is an area of brokenness and weakness in my own life that God, in his kindness, turns into something beautiful … or at least interesting. I have physical frustrations that limit me, and which God has not seen fit to fix … and perhaps that’s okay.
Comforted to comfort
Sometimes, the healing that has come after an earlier ‘break’, can become a source of comfort, security and strength to another. The Bible says that God “… comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (2 Corinthians 1:4 NIV). I pondered on that as I passed a tree with a couple of holes in its somewhat swollen trunk. No doubt, the hollow serves as ‘home’ to local creatures.
Pain in pruning
Sometimes it is necessary to intentionally break something in order to facilitate healing and wholeness. Below is a photo of a diseased plant which needs to be cut back before the whole tree is affected.
Without such ‘breaking’, healing may not be possible. In life, I experience pain when difficulties come upon me or when someone says or does something which causes me to squirm. Yet sometimes … just sometimes and not always … such ‘brokenness’ is a necessary part of healing and restoration of wholeness.
Break the restraints
Imagine a caterpillar pouring its life and energy into creating a beautiful chrysalis. Doesn’t it seem a dreadful shame for the emerging butterfly to break that glossy cocoon?
I didn’t see any cocoons on my walk today. It is winter, after all. However, I saw plenty of spring buds, some of which are already opening into gorgeous flowers. Would we wish that the buds didn’t open because, in opening, we lose the buds? No – it is right and good that what restrains, even if once helpful and protective, be broken.
I think about other instances in nature where things are broken in order for the new to emerge.
Eggs protect and nurture growing chicks, but after they have served their purpose, it is right that they are broken.
Female mammals nurture their young in their wombs, the embryos encased in a sac of fluid, but when the time is right, it is right that the mother’s waters break and the baby is born.
In English, we say that ‘morning breaks’ and we refer to ‘daybreak’. Imagine if the magnificent star-studded night sky were never to be broken by the rising sun? It is unfathomable.
As I walked, I prayed about breaking bad habits … actions which may not even be bad in themselves but which hold us back. I particularly confessed my … er … dare I call it ‘sin'(?) … of snacking on unhealthy treats in the evening. This habit is comfortable but it is also limiting. It’s not good for my sleep, nor for my health. It’s a habit I want to break. I pictured a butterfly emerging from the cocoon which constrains it and asked the Holy Spirit to help me to break this bad habit. That is literally what I confessed and prayed as I approached the local shops.
I passed an advertising board. In the photo below, I’ve removed the details of the shop because I don’t want to promote it … it sells crystals and incense. However, the pithy saying on the billboard was exactly in line with what I sensed the Lord saying to me, even down to the butterfly images. ‘Synchronicity’ is what some people would call it. ‘God’s hand’ is how I interpret coincidences like this.
‘Thank you and goodbye’
Of course, sometimes it is time to say ‘thank you and goodbye’. (I think that concept was popularised by de-clutter-er Marie Kondo … I mention that just to give credit where credit is due.) This is a constant struggle for me. As with my travel cup which I kept for far too long, I really don’t like letting things go.
This house (above) was once a home. It has served its purpose, though, and now it is time to demolish it. Sad it is, yes, but is it bad? Or is it time to just say ‘thank you and goodbye’?
As I walked along a road today, an old vehicle chugged past me. It was one of those classic cars with a vintage car number plate. I then came across a house with the front yard FULL of vintage cars, all lovingly covered with tarpaulins. One was parked out the front. The owner of these old cars clearly cherishes them, and that’s nice for him. If it were me, however, they would become a burden. Sometimes it is right to say ‘Thank you and goodbye’, even to things that have been useful and valued.
Lessons from nature
There is a time and a place for everything. But in the emergence of something new, that which is old often has to go. It may be sad, it may hurt, it may even be ugly, but it is not usually bad.
Just as the great Philosopher wrote, there is a time for everything.
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:a time to be born and a time to die,
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NIV
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
A Prayer
Lord, grant us the courage to break with what constrains and limits us.
In your mercy, break off any part of us that is unhealthy and threatens to infect and destroy us.
In your gentle faithfulness, heal and restore those who are broken. Give us wisdom and direction to care well for one another in our pain.
We praise you for the vitality and growth that you grant us.
As our mortal bodies age and break down may we fix our eyes on you, certain of the glorious hope of the resurrection.
We pray this in the name of Jesus,
Amen
