Every Bright and Broken Thing

Dear Reader

This was not an easy story to write. I agonized over these characters and what they faced. There was a part of me that didn't want to write it, but someone had to. It's an important story – a necessary story.

It's okay to break. It's okay to fall apart. But what we need to re-learn – what I had to re-learn – is that the breaking isn't all there is. There is a waking up. An opening our eyes to a new reality that exists on the other side of pain. Perhaps it's just the Jesus in me. Perhaps I'm hopelessly hopeful. But I believe there is a purpose for our pain. Those moments where people abuse us, where we endure trauma or come face to face with our own fragility, those moments do not have to eclipse us for the rest of our lives. We do not have to become our pain

I know what it's like to be broken beyond belief. I know how brokenness can shape you. There came a point in my life – the kind of crossroads we all face at one time or another – where I had to choose. I could either spend my life running from the breaking. Or I could spend my life in pursuit of the promise on the other side of my pain. We all face that choice. In many ways, I believe that those who have gone before us (parents, teachers, friends, leaders) have failed to teach us how to walk in such a way that fear, shame, hurt, anger, or trauma does not dictate our lives.

Friend, don't let the hurt crowd out your heart. Don't let it eclipse who you are – who you're going to be.

What if we took those seasons of pain and instead of constantly fighting it and trying to run from it, we leaned into it. A rebellious concept, I know. But I believe that if we learned how to lean into seasons of pain then we might discover a secret, hidden power within us. Trauma does not have to hijack your life. Don't give your abusers or your hurt that kind of control. Push through. Because what if? What if the pain is molding you into someone different? Someone better, stronger, fiercer, braver, bolder? Someone with greater faith, greater love, greater hope, greater joy, greater peace?

What if, in those seasons of life where we walk through the valley of the shadow, we chose instead to pioneer the way to the beauty and breakthrough that exists on the other side of brokenness?

You don't have to run anymore. This path that you're walking is going to prepare a pathway to healing on which those who come after you can follow. Let me be the one to remind you of the power available to you. That there is more. That life isn't about what you're running from. It's about what you're running toward.

You are not a refugee; you are a pioneer.

Brian McBride