I trust everyone is familiar with the nursery rhyme of Humpty Dumpty from 17th-century England. It is among the most common nursery rhymes in the English-speaking world. Like Humpty Dumpty, we too sometimes feel shattered. Thankfully, however, we’re not eggpeople with a fragile exoskeleton. Once an egg is broken it cannot go back together again. While sometimes it may feel as though all our interior essence has run out, and we’ll never get back together again, unlike Humpty Dumpty, we can get put together again. We don’t need to assume the exact same shape after the break as before. Our structure can be changed into countless new shapes.
For Humpty Dumpty, a crack is the beginning of the end. But for us, a crack can be a beginning. Mark Nepo, author of The One Life We’re Given, encourages us to think of a crack as an opening. Part of the human condition is that we will face some kind of harm in our lives that may have us feeling broken. But we need not remain broken. Wallowing in our suffering, even when our grievances are entirely justified, keeps us stuck in that broken place. If we instead see our cracks as an opening we can move out of the brokenness to a new place and form. That journey from a cracked shape into a new reformed one may grant us life wisdom about ourselves.
Many authors (so many there is no need to cite a particular one) remind us to trust in ourselves at times of brokenness. Feeling broken often diminishes our sense of self-worth or confidence in ourselves. We may question our past decision-making or intuition. But we are the only ones who know how we feel now and how we wish to feel in the future. Have faith in our own feelings, intuition, judgments, and will about how we can move from brokenness to wholeness. Our story is uniquely our own. Have faith that our pace and timeline is the one that is right for us. Trust in our own resources on how we can move to a reconstituted self. We all have the resources. We simply need to rediscover them and use them.
While the use of our own resources is a fundamental part of the journey from brokenness to wholeness, we need not do it alone. Others can be helpful in two ways. First, connect, reconnect, and lean on others to share our stories and regain confidence in our resources. The Pastoral Associates, the ministers of this congregation, and your church family are all available to you. Sharing our stories, in a safe and supportive space, helps us process where we are and where we want to go. Second, connecting with others can be a helpful reminder that what we’re experiencing at the time is not the totality of life. When we’re feeling cracked or broken, it is entirely understandable to often feel consumed by our experiences. Some of those times can make us suffer so badly we might begin to forget feeling any differently. Others can serve as useful reminders that our current experience is not: (1) who we have always been, (2) who they are, and (3) who we need to be moving forward. Being among others can be a helpful reminder that our current plight is not a universal human experience at all times. We can choose to move toward wholeness again as resignation to brokenness is never our only option. And all of your cavalry and all of your infantry can put you together again.
Minister Joel