More Insights from People's 25 Things....

4. If you haven't broken it then you don't know enough about it.

My friend AJ wrote this one in his 25 Random Things blog. I used to babysit AJ when he was a little kid. Now he's 23 and a very talented musician. He's also really funny, a middle child, and apparently brilliant.

I have no idea what he's talking about when he makes this statement. Possibly a relationship, a mechanical device, a vase....who knows. But for me, when I read this I laughed and then thought "so very true." The world is not perfect. Our lives are not perfect. Nothing around us will ever be perfect. The likelihood that I will break something, anything, is great. And the idea that this will only help me learn more about it is wonderful. For me this is comforting. Because I will break something or someone sometime and skewing this idea of "breaking" to make it have a positive outcome is how I prefer to see life. I do prefer to see the glass as half full. I do prefer to look forward to the good coming from the bad. I also look forward to learning. And learning from a broken (bad) situation excites me.

This is also very important for our growth as people in community. If we don't learn something from our mistakes, if we don't learn how to adapt or change from our short-comings then we are not opening ourselves up to the transforming power of God in our lives. If you don't want to think about it in terms of God think about it in terms of fate. What part do we play in our own fate if we don't learn from our own brokenness?