brokenness

“As it is lived out, Christian spirituality concerns the formation of our soul – ‘reforming the broken soul of [our] humanity in a recovery from its alienation from God’ which encompasses our entire being. It is in this broad sense that spirituality and the soul go together, for Christian spirituality actively engages the soul in its ongoing process of self-renovation: soul making, soul crafting, soul shaping, and soul keeping.”

Wil Hernandez, Henri Nouwen, A Spirituality of Imperfection

Broken soul of our humanity. Alienation from God. I cannot tell you how many life examples I witnessed in the last three weeks that speak to the broken soul, the alienation from God.

While in Chile recently, I had the opportunity to touch lives that ‘seem’ alienated from God - women, living on the margins, dealing with issues such as abuse and abandonment, children dealing with poverty and violence.
Less than two weeks ago, I witnessed the dying process of my mom for 48 hours. As I heard her gasp for breath while fluid built up in her body I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that neither of us was in the Garden. As I looked at her and held her hand through this part of the journey, I reflected on the fact that this painful process is the result of the Fall.

As tough as these situations are I am able to hold onto the last part of this quote…that with the Holy Spirit each of hard places is an opportunity for me to yield to Jesus’ work within me…’the on-going process of renovation’. May the Spirit continue in the work of ‘soul making, soul crafting, soul shaping and soul keeping’ and may I continue to allow this work to happen.

Grace and peace –
Deb