Where there’s brokenness, there’s also hope. It’s been when I feel the most despair, loneliness, wandering…that I feel hope closest to me. Because in those moments there’s so much possibility of what can become.
…what can be better, what can repair, what can heal.
After my first marriage and the collapse of our world into a heap of ugliness, questions, and darkness a few years ago, it was a time of deep despair and great hope, all at once.
We all have brokenness. The more I write and receive feedback, the more I discover that there are others like me: people who’ve suffered, who’ve had their pieces shattered and have experienced real hurt that hits us right behind the knees, knocking us on our faces. I discover often and over and over that there are very few of us who haven’t been there.
Ann Voskamp writes with profound insight. This New York Times bestselling author is well-known for her books The Greatest Gift, Unwrapping the Greatest Gift, and the 60-week NYT bestseller, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are. And she’s intimately acquainted with tragedy and brokenness.
Can you count all the places and situations in your life you’ve encountered a bully? School. Neighborhood. Family. Even the workplace. Bullies have a way of dragging you down and making life miserable for you because they’re really hard to deal with.
Why do people bully? I think there are lots of reasons, from my observations: