We do not have a God who discounts or dismisses our struggles as necessary for the greater good. ... We have a God who guards great storehouses of our tears, each one known intimately, each one never forgotten, each one part of an ocean where love strokes the ripples and justice roars in the waves. Instead of using our pain, God bathes in the ocean of it with us.
Let’s reframe the idea that we must be whole to be useful. We should throw out the useful part of that idea and the whole part (when used to mean mended). What if we could discover God’s power within our brokenness? What if instead of looking for usefulness in wholeness, we find a new and more dynamic power in God’s weakness-powered wholeness?
We sometimes build a narrative of having to be useful to God. Oh, how the “God-using” language can exacerbate the uneasiness deep within us! The problem is that we stay bowed under this load, even in places where we should be free to express the truth.
