Day 22

Wednesday, March 26th

“Without your wound where would your power be? It is your very remorse that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men. The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living. In Love’s service only the wounded soldiers can serve...”

-Brennan Manning, Abba's Child

If you’ve ever thought that you are beyond God’s ability to use you in any significant way, that you’re hurt and broken beyond God’s ability to heal, today is for you. The man who wrote the quote above died of health complications due to a lifetime of alcohol abuse. His times of recovery were inevitably followed by relapses. His marriage of 18 years failed. And yet his words still ring out in the world today encouraging heavy, wounded, and broken hearts to come to the God who loves them no matter what. 

Brennan Manning didn’t just know “about” God’s grace, it was the life raft he clung to throughout his entire tormented life. Broken, struggling, recovering, relapsing, he clung to Jesus, coming back again and again, accepting His forgiveness and trusting only in His love and grace. 

The Christian world is uncomfortable with stories like Brennan Manning’s. They prefer people to fit nicely into boxes, tied up with perfect bows. The only stories they want to hear are the “I used to be terrible, but now I’m all good” kind. If you aren’t  “going from victory to victory” in this life, can you even call yourself a Christian?

Talk like this shuts the majority of us off from God, doesn’t it? People like you and me who fail, and then get back up, accept God’s forgiveness, and try again. 

The Christian world has talked too glibly, and too shallowly, about the “overcoming life”, imagining that it means a “good Christian” will never fail. The “overcoming life” doesn’t mean that at all. The reality of living as broken people walking through this broken world is that we face times of walking in the sun and times of walking in the shadows. We live the overcoming life when we come back to the cross of Jesus each time we fail, accepting his grace so that we can get back up again. 

I know God’s will for Brennan Manning was that he would recover from his alcoholism and live in freedom, but that isn’t how his story ended. As “a wounded soldier”, Brennan served his God faithfully, coming to Jesus each time he fell. His words “tremble into the hearts of men”, bringing us to the deep wells of God’s unconditional love in a way that someone who had never known failure could never do.  

What is something you struggle with that makes you more compassionate towards others who struggle?

Acknowledge those struggles when you pray today and ask God to help you, heal you, and use you to point others to Jesus.