It is amazing to me how trivial the resurrection can become when it is used as the undergirding of a triumphalistic approach to the Christian life – an approach to life that wants to hide the brokenness and accent a false sense of security and wholeness.
Resurrection doesn’t really mean much unless we are willing to face into our experiences of confusion, brokenness, disappointment, addiction, and loss. It is precisely in the painful and honest acknowledgement of these messes that we discover the resurrection power of Jesus’ love for us and in us.
It is also amazing to me, and wonderfully reassuring, that I sometimes find a clearer expression of the deep truths of crucifixion and resurrection from those who do not obviously distinguish themselves as Christian. Currently, Joy and I are enjoying one such book, a poignant and probing read by Elizabeth Lesser entitled Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow. Here are some excerpts from the introduction that touched me deeply.
“How strange that the nature of life is change, yet the nature of human beings is to resist change. And how ironic that the difficult times we fear might ruin us are the very ones that can break us open and help us blossom into who we were meant to be….You may be at the beginning of a transition, feeling only a vague mood of restlessness or a nagging nudge in the direction of something new. Or maybe you are in a full-blown period of change: what you thought was your life is now over, and where you are heading is unknown.
“To be human is to be lost in the woods. None of us arrives here with clear directions on how to get from point A to point B without stumbling into the forest of confusion or catastrophe or wrongdoing…We all know people who say their cancer or divorce or bankruptcy was the greatest gift of a lifetime – that until the body, or the heart, or the bank was broken, they didn’t know who they were, what they felt, or what they wanted….In their most broken moments they were brought to their knees; they were humbled; they were opened….But we also know people who did not turn their misfortune into insight, or their grief into joy. Instead, they became more bitter, more reactive, more cynical. They shut down. They went back to sleep.
“I have made note of how fiasco and failure visit each one of us, as if they were written into the job description of being human….I have seen people crumble in times of trouble, lose their spirit and never fully recover. I have seen others protect themselves from any kind of change, until they are living a half life, safe yet stunted….If we an stay awake when our lives are changing, secrets will be revealed to us – secrets about ourselves, about the nature of life, and about the eternal source of happiness and peace that is always available, always renewable, already within us.”
