Strong in the Broken Places
Romans 5:1-11
Martin B. Copenhaver
Ernest Hemingway sounds very much like the Apostle Paul when he writes, in A Farewell to Arms, "The world breaks everyone, and afterward some are strong in the broken places." As Christians, however, we understand our brokenness and become strong in a particular way. Paul affirms that, for the Christian, all of life is a reenactment of the death and resurrection of Jesus. His story is not just one we can hear, but a story in which we are invited to share. So the world may break everyone, but that is not the last word. The Christian holds, not that things always turn out for the best, for they seldom do, but that through it all God loves us, upholds us, receives us. That is because our God is the kind of God who insists on having the last word. To be sure, the second to last word, which may be very powerful, can be given to something else--suffering, despair, hopelessness, evil, death itself. But our God insists on having the very last word, and that is always a helpful word, a healing word, a word of peace, of hopefulness, and of life. That is what it means to participate in the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is about God taking the raw stuff of defeat and forging an ultimate victory. It is about becoming strong in the broken places.
Prayer: Dear God, thank you for the promise that my life is so bound to Jesus' life that, even when I am broken, I can become strong in the broken places through your grace. Amen.
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