Our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it.
Interpretation
Our flaws can be beautiful when accompanied by the compassion we receive from others.
This quote suggests that while we may feel broken or flawed, the real beauty lies not in the flaws themselves, but in the compassion and support we receive from those around us. It emphasizes the importance of empathy and love in healing and finding beauty in our struggles.
In practice
In a motivational speech about resilience, one might quote this to highlight the healing power of compassion.
The Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. God loves us, not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love.
The immense joy in welcoming back the lost son hides in the immense sorrow that has gone before....our brokenness may appear beautiful, but our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it.
Suffering invites us to place our hurts in larger hands. In Christ we see God suffering β for us. And calling us to share in Godβs suffering love for a hurting world. The small and even overpowering pains of our lives are intimately connected with the greater pains of Christ. Our daily sorrows are anchored in a greater sorrow and therefore a larger hope.
To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, welcome, to accept.
Waiting is a dry desert between where we are and where we want to be. (Finding My Way Home)
Becoming the beloved is pulling the truth revealed to me from above down into the ordinariness of what I am, in fact, thinking of, talking about and doing from hour to hour.
If I am no longer disturbed myself, I will deal less with disturbed people and with violent material. I don't regret having concerned myself with such people, because I think that most of us are disturbed.
Let thy step be slow and steady, that thou stumble not.
There is something that is much more scarce, something finer far, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability.
The finished man, you know, is difficult to please; a growing mind will ever show you gratitude. --Faust 1, lines 182-3
Work on your stony qualities and become resplendent like the ruby. Practice self-denial and accept difficulty. Always see infinite life in letting the self die. Your stoniness will decrease; your ruby nature will grow. The signs of self-existence will leave your body, and ecstasy will take you over.
Balance in large measure is knowing the things that can be changed, putting them in proper perspective, and recognizing the things that will not change."
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