Brokenness
What in your life, or in the world, screams "brokenness" to you?
As soon as we consider that a good and powerful being - “God” - might be behind what’s good in life or that he might have a good purpose for the world, we are confronted with the screaming, giant, pink, elephant in the room:
Why, then, is there so much pain, suffering, and evil in the World?
And in my life?
All valid origin stories must account for evil. Some of the basic explanations are: it's random (Naturalism), it's relative (Relativism), it’s purposeful (Stoicism), or it’s supernatural (Dualism). It’s true that at times the suffering we observe in the world appears random, and that we have overlapping but differing perspectives on what is evil. It’s also true that suffering can produce good in our lives.
But if we get out of the classroom, real life demands better answers.
If my dad gets cancer, or a child is tragically killed, or if I’m trying to wrap my head around global injustice or poverty, “it’s random” or “it’s purposeful” just don’t cut it. Furthermore, despite all of our advancements in politics, education, economics, ecology, and moral "freedoms," evil does not seem to be going away whether it is “out there” (in the world) or “in here” (in my life).
One way the Christian Story understands evil and all its consequences is through the idea of: “Brokenness.”
Brokenness is the counterpart of Wholeness for a realistic understanding of our world and our lives. Like a broken-down bicycle that still reveals its original design, the brokenness we see in life points back to the Wholeness God intended.
Technically, brokenness is a symptom of a bigger problem called "sin." While most ancient cultures were rather ok with the idea of sin, it makes us uncomfortable in the 21st century West. Often this is because of ways “sin” has been used as a religious weapon. But no one disagrees that we live in a broken world and that we suffer from brokenness. What if sin is not a dagger, but a diagnosis?
The Christian Story diagnoses humanity and explains brokenness under a threefold condition of “sin:” sin is a servitude, a state, and a status (credit for this threefold description goes to Michael Bird).
As a servitude, sin represents a hostile force at work both societally and individually. This enslavement is seen in horrific societal atrocities like racism, devastating individual suffering like depression, and in smaller struggles like being unable to rise above an addiction or a bad habit. A writer in the early Church described human beings as being "sold as slaves” to sin and living under the rule of a "Kingdom of Darkness."
As a state, sin is part of the human condition, like a highly contagious, incurable disease—we are all infected and, in turn, infect others. Evil has and will exist wherever humanity has existed and will exist. If I am a human, then I am infected with sin. The Christian story talks about the effects of this as “death”—both physical and metaphorical, the latter being a state of spiritual death leaving us unable to access God.
As a status, sin creates relational and judicial distance from God. If God's purpose is shalom (see the “Wholeness” article), sin is "culpable shalom-breaking… blamable human vandalism … that is an affront to [our] architect and builder.” Whether we are engaged in evil on a grand scale, or in the relationships and small recesses of our personal lives, we are responsible for the consequences: estrangement from our Father, and guilt before our Judge.
How about you? Have you experienced evil acting as a force in your life? Do you see it acting in the world? Do you feel the slow creep of “death” – and death – in your life, relationships, and work? Do you carry around a sense of guilt? Do you sense your alienation from your Heavenly Father?
Russian novelist, Alexander Solzhenitsyn writes in his nonfiction work, The Gulag Archipelago:
If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
The human condition is only adequately explained when we give full credence to our wholeness and our brokenness. We all gratefully experience and participate in the wholeness of life, yet we also all suffer from and are complicit in the evil in the world.
The question that follows is this: Is there any hope?
The Christian Story answers a resounding: Yes!
An accurate diagnosis leads to the cure.
Keep reading to explore what the Christian Story offers as a solution.