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<\/a>This essay was originally a sermon, delivered to Redemption Church. If you would like to listen or download the mp3, here\u2019s the link<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
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One of the consistent claims of Jesus in the New Testament was this idea that the heart matters. The exterior life can be deceptive; we can play games with it. So Jesus continually pointed people to the heart & to their character. He didn\u2019t believe it was enough just to do right things. One needed to do right things for right reasons. Following the letter of the Jewish law didn\u2019t work; at least in part because if the heart\u2019s not in it, you miss the whole point and end up finding ways around it.<\/p>\n
Jesus wasn\u2019t trying to form people who knew how to follow rules. He was trying to form people\u2019s character so they wouldn\u2019t need rules. They would just naturally do what was right. So this has always been a big question for the people of God: How do we do this? How do we Shape human character?<\/p>\n
As you study human communities, you find that the answer is actually the same for all communities over all of history. The way you shape a person\u2019s character is to involve them in a community that will train its members to take on the character of the group. The way communities do this is thru something called narrative.<\/p>\n
Narrative is a way of naming the over-arching story about life & the world that helps people make sense of their own existence. Every community has a story that explains where they came from, what life means, & why humans are here on the planet. One would call this story their narrative. The character of the community will conform to its narrative.<\/p>\n
For all of our focus on rules, when you actually observe human behavior; what you learn is that our narrative is what forms our character.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the first crucial piece of information: Narratives shape our character.<\/p>\n
As Christians, we want to form Christian character in ourselves and other members of our community. This happens as we join with a community that tells the Christian story. That story or narrative will shape our character.<\/p>\n
This is why when bless our kids each Sunday we pray that they will \u201cfind themselves in story of God, still happening, and that they\u2019re a part of it.\u201d We\u2019re not giving rules. We\u2019re giving a story. This is also why I\u2019m always on about: individualism, consumerism, & nationalism. Those are some of the rival stories trying to shape our character.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s almost strange for us to think about it in this way, but it\u2019s true. Your life will conform to the story you tell about the world, your life, & what it means. Narratives shape our character, and they have incredible power. In The Faraway Nearby, Rebecca Solnit says, \u201cStories are compasses and architecture; we navigate by them, we build our sanctuaries and our prisons out of them\u2026stories are geography.\u201d<\/p>\n
What a brilliant line. We navigate the world by the stories we tell. A bad story is a kind of prison. A good story is a kind sanctuary. And how we see this play out, how narratives shape our character has to do with what we sometimes call virtue.<\/p>\n
Virtues are the dispositions of the heart, the habits of heart and life that correspond to our story or narrative. This is the second crucial piece of information: Narratives shape our character, and they determine our virtues. Narratives tell us what it means to be good & do good (virtue). For example, one of the pervasive American narratives is consumerism\u2014a belief that an ever-expanding consumption is the way to happiness & good life. Remember the 80s movie Wall Street & that famous speech the character Gordon Gecko gives where he says, \u201cGreed is good\u201d? That\u2019s how this works. Narrative determines virtue. If your narrative is consumerism, then greed is a virtue (greed actually is good in your community).<\/p>\n
Hopefully, Christians would never say \u201cGreed is good\u201d because it doesn\u2019t fit with our story, our narrative. We have these stories like the rich young ruler, or the Good Samaritan, or scores of others that teach us to be generous, and to care for each other. Our narratives shapes our character & determines our virtues.<\/p>\n
We live in this world of competing stories, competing narratives they are all fighting it out within the culture to see who gets to shape the character of the people, and determine the virtues of a society.<\/p>\n
Most importantly, Christians hold fast to Story of God because we believe the story true, and thus it can form us in ways that will make us true\u2014make us truly human as God intended that to be. So, we cling to The Story of God not as a power game or love of tradition, but because we think it\u2019s the only story that can form our character & virtues in ways that will make us true as people.<\/p>\n
Christian virtues go against the grain of our culture & the popular narratives of the day. Many are all but forgotten. Today we\u2019re going to talk about brokenness as a virtue. Which is strange, I know\u2014it\u2019s not a very traditional virtue. But it\u2019s central to the Christian story. And it could not be more counter-cultural in our world.<\/p>\n
Our story comes from Genesis chapter 32:22-32<\/p>\n
22That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob\u2019s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.\u00a026Then the man said, \u2018Let me go, for it is daybreak.\u2019 But Jacob replied, \u2018I will not let you go unless you bless me.\u2019 27The man asked him, \u2018What is your name?\u2019 \u2018Jacob,\u2019 he answered.<\/p>\n
28 Then the man said, \u2018Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans & have overcome.\u2019 29Jacob said, \u2018Please tell me your name.\u2019 But he replied, \u2018Why do you ask my name?\u2019 Then he blessed him there. 30So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, \u2018It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.\u2019 31The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob\u2019s hip was touched near the tendon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Journalist and essayist Chuck Klosterman writes quite a bit about sports, music, and culture. Klosterman has an essay called \u201cThe Best Response.\u201d He\u2019s writing to illustrate the best way to respond to some kind of personal embarrassment. When our personal brokenness goes public in one-way or another, what should we say? Klosterman has ideas. (I just read them aloud from the book. They are not printed online anywhere I could find. I\u2019ve done a synopsis of just a few here).<\/p>\n
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- The best response to forgetting the name of someone you\u2019ve met several times before: Klosterman says you should tell them they look exactly like your best friend Jamie, who died tragically in a boating accident. Your brain keeps trying to call them Jamie, because the resemblance is uncanny and you still aren\u2019t over the loss. That\u2019s why you can\u2019t remember their real name. Jamie\u2019s the only name your brain will accept.<\/li>\n
- The best response to allegations that you used steroids throughout your playing career, particularly if those allegations are true and verifiable: tell them that you tried steroids, but they didn\u2019t help. Your body didn\u2019t react to them like most people. You are terribly competitive and would do anything to gain an advantage. Everybody else was doing it, so you tried it, but since they didn\u2019t help you (only made your face break out, and made you feel susceptible to injury), you stopped.<\/li>\n
- The best response to Being arrested for carrying an unlicensed handgun into a nightclub and accidently shooting yourself in the leg, thereby jeopardizing your pro football career: There are lots of people who want to kill me (that\u2019s why I have a gun). I don\u2019t trust the government (that\u2019s why I didn\u2019t register it). I already shot myself in the let, so what worse punishment could I receive?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
You get the picture. When our brokenness comes light we are trained in our society to do anything within our power to avoid it. Because brokenness caries with it a lot of pain & we don\u2019t do pain. This is a defining reality for our culture: we don\u2019t do pain.<\/p>\n
One of my friends recently posted this tweet: \u201cDear sore tooth, I have successfully started chewing on the other side of my mouth\u2026 your move.\u201d That\u2019s pain aversion.<\/p>\n
We have an unlimited supply of techniques to avoid experiencing the pain that comes along with admitting our own brokenness\u2014here\u2019s the short list:<\/p>\n
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- Denial, if you don\u2019t have to see it, maybe it\u2019s not broken.<\/li>\n
- Blame, discharge the pain by pinning it one someone else.<\/li>\n
- Run, just take off \u2013 don\u2019t have to face it \u2013 a favorite in the church.<\/li>\n
- Perfectionism, do it perfect, no one will see that you feel broken.<\/li>\n
- Cynicism, just act too cool to care, like we\u2019re above it all.<\/li>\n
- Numbing, take a pill, eat another donut, have a drink\u2026<\/li>\n
- Control, (also big in church) if I can control it, won\u2019t look broken.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Look at the list, which one is your favorite? \u201cPerfectionism\u201d is one of mine, and maybe \u201ccontrol.\u201d How would I know if it\u2019s denial? Even if you tried to tell I was in denial me I\u2019d deny it. These are all ways of avoiding the pain of facing our own brokenness. In The Faraway Nearby, Rebecca Solnit addresses our pain aversion:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a society that values the anesthetic over pain. We hide our prisons, our sick, our mad, and our poor; we expend colossal resources to live in padded, temperature-controlled environments that make few demands on our bodies or our minds. We come up with elaborate means of not knowing about the suffering of others and of blaming them when we do\u2026 Choosing not to feel pain is choosing a sort of death, a withering away of the expansive self.\u201d \u2013 Rebecca Solnit, The Faraway Nearby<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Solnit is saying we all share this aversion to the pain that occurs when we are exposed to our own brokenness & the brokenness of others. So we\u2019ve constructed a world in which we can avoid dealing with it\u2026 and we\u2019ve gotten confused. We resort to elaborate means to avoid brokenness, and we don\u2019t realize: \u201cChoosing not to feel pain is choosing a sort of death, a withering away of the expansive self.\u201d<\/p>\n
Solnit\u00a0is tapping into one of the deepest streams of the Christian narrative, and the crux of what I\u2019m trying to get us to think about. The narrative of our culture tells us that the avoidance of brokenness is a virtue\u2014and if you can\u2019t avoid brokenness, then at least hide it. Deny, blame, run, engage perfectionism or cynicism, numb it, or try to control it, do whatever you\u2019ve got to do, but don\u2019t let it show. If you can avoid the appearance of brokenness, then our culture will reward you.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s our Cultural narrative.<\/p>\n
The Christian story is very different.<\/p>\n
The Christian story tells us that in the hands of God, our brokenness becomes a virtue. We don\u2019t have to deny, blame, run, numb, or control the brokenness. We don\u2019t have to avoid it in ourselves, and we are not allowed to avoid it in others. The Christian story tells us that in the hands of God, our brokenness can actually become a virtue.\u00a0And admitting our brokenness is where it all starts for us. This is where redemption begins.\u00a0The Christian story says that this move\u2014admitting our brokenness to the community, and bearing their brokenness as well\u2014that is a basic qualification for participation in the life of the people of God. The story of Jacob wrestling with God is a great example of how this has worked in the past.<\/p>\n
Jacob\u2019s story involved a lot of pain. His father was Isaac, his mother was Rebekah, and Jacob had a twin brother named Esau. Esau was born first, and Jacob came out grasping Esau\u2019s heel. This became kind of a symbol of the two brother\u2019s relationship. Jacob was always nipping at Esau\u2019s heels.\u00a0Esau was a big burley hunter, a man\u2019s man, & his father\u2019s favorite. Jacob was frail & stayed in among the tents. He was his mom\u2019s favorite. Esau was the first to be born, so he got all of the privileges of the first son. He would be the sole heir & leader of the family when Isaac died.<\/p>\n
Esau\u2019s place as first song really bothered Jacob. So, Jacob tricked Esau into giving away his birthright as first son\u2014Jacob would be the father of the family. Then just before Isaac died, Rebekah helped Jacob to trick his father into giving Jacob his final blessing. This is the story where Jacob put on animal skins so when his blind father touched him he\u2019d feel all hairy like Esau. After that little trick, Jacob knew he better run away if he wanted to live. He went to live with a distant relative named Laban.<\/p>\n
Laban had a daughter named Rachel. Jacob loved her, and she loved him. Her father made Jacob work for seven years before he could marry Rachel. But on the night of the wedding Laban Got Jacob so drunk he didn\u2019t realize Laban had him marry the wrong sister. He awoke the next morning not to his true love, but to her older sister. Laban made Jacob work another seven years for the wife he wanted. (You thought your family had troubles, right?)<\/p>\n
Since Jacob was managing most of Laban\u2019s business, he struck shrewd deals with his father in law, to make sure that Laban made out fine, but Jacob made out better. Jacob\u2019s wealth is expanded like crazy, and it made Laban and his sons jealous. There is the implication in the text that since Laban hasn\u2019t been straightforward with him, Jacob feels justified in taking Laban for a ride. Top to bottom, Jacob has a completely dysfunctional family:<\/p>\n
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- His mom & dad are play favorites.<\/li>\n
- Jacob tricked Esau out of his birthright.<\/li>\n
- Jacob tricked his father into giving him Esau\u2019s blessing.<\/li>\n
- Laban tricked him into marrying wrong sister.<\/li>\n
- Laban took advantage of Jacob\u2019s abilities.<\/li>\n
- Jacob turned the tables on Laban and became quite rich.<\/li>\n
- Finally Laban & his sons got so upset about it that Jacob had to leave.<\/li>\n
- On the way out the door Rachel stole her father\u2019s gods.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
So, Jacob packed up his wives, his children, his camels, his flocks & servants, slaves, and hired hands & headed for his homeland. This was the second time, Jacob found himself on the run from a family member. When he got close enough he sent messengers to tell Esau that his brother Jacob was coming home. He was taking Esau\u2019s temperature to see just how mad he still was. The messenger returned with a frightening report:\u00a0\u201cWe went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.\u201d \u2013 Gen 32:6<\/p>\n
So Jacob was petrified. He divided his possessions into two groups, hoping that if one was attacked, the other could escape. He sent gifts to his brother in two enormous groups\u2014goats, rams, camels, bulls, and donkeys\u2014hoping to butter Esau up with extravagance.\u00a0Then Jacob hunkered down to spend night. Gen 32:9-12 records a desperate prayer.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, \u201cGo back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,\u201d I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, \u201cI will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.\u201d\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
He\u2019s was crying out to God in anguish and fear. For some reason he got\u00a0up in the middle of the night & sent\u00a0his entire family\u00a0across the river, and he stayed\u00a0behind, completely alone. The text says that a \u201cman\u201d came to\u00a0wrestle with him in the night. They wrestled until dawn, when the stalemate was finally broken as the man touched Jacob\u2019s hip and put it out of joint.<\/p>\n
26Then the man said, \u2018Let me go, for it is daybreak.\u2019 But Jacob replied, \u2018I will not let you go unless you bless me.\u2019 27The man asked him, \u2018What is your name?\u2019 \u2018Jacob,\u2019 he answered. 28Then the man said, \u2018Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.\u2019 29Jacob said, \u2018Please tell me your name.\u2019 But he replied, \u2018Why do you ask my name?\u2019 [this seems to be\u00a0a way of saying, I already told you my name, I am God with whom you just wrestled\u2026 hence the name, \u201cthe one who wrestles with God\u201d] Then he blessed him there\u2026 31The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
For the rest of Jacob\u2019s life he was called Israel, the one who wrestles with God\u2026 and for the rest of his life he walked with a limp. From that day on in the story, Jacob was a different man. He could never bring himself to mask his brokenness again. It was as though all of his family junk finally caught up to him. Yet, because he confessed it and didn\u2019t try to hide it, God allowed him to wrestle with his past, and with God. Jacob is born again, and given a new name. But he didn\u2019t\u00a0get out of it without a serious\u00a0wounding, a limp\u2026<\/p>\n
Jacob has protested to God. \u201cI thought you promised to make me a great leader & make my descendants like the sands of the sea?\u201d And it\u2019s as if God says, \u201cThis wounding, your brokenness, your father\u2019s favoritism, your mother\u2019s scheming, the trickery with Esau & Laban, all of this is not really what is killing you. What is killing you is that you keep running from it\u2014until today. Today you faced it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The change was so profound that Jacob needed a new name. Even though he walked with a limp, Jacob now knew how to wrestle with God. It\u2019s as though God was telling Jacob, \u201cI know your life has been crazy, but all of it has served a purpose. The wounds of your life, your brokenness & that of your family, those were your qualifications for leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
From that point on Jacob was never the same.\u00a0His brokenness was no longer masked by the shrewd trickster persona. He was just a struggler.<\/p>\n
Maybe what God is looking for isn\u2019t a bunch of people who are so\u00a0perfect that they can act above it all. What if God is looking for people who have real live wounds? What if God wants us to open up about our wounds because God is a healer? What did Jesus say? \u201cI came not for the healthy, but for the sick.\u201d\u00a0God is looking for people who walk with a limp. People who have learned that it\u2019s not our brokenness that is killing us, it\u2019s our hiding, and our avoidance of pain.\u00a0Barbara Brown Taylor says this way:<\/p>\n
\u201cNot to accept suffering as a normal, inevitable part of being alive seems like a big mistake, and finding ways to cover it up seems like choosing anesthesia. There is a sense in which if I will trust that what comes to me is for me (Now that\u2019s the hugest faith statement I can make to you. If I will trust that what comes to me in my life is for me and not against me), what I find is that it breaks my idols, that it breaks my isolation, that it challenges my sense of independence, it does all kinds of things for me that I would not willingly do, that are for me, that are for my health.\u201d \u2013 Barbara Brown Taylor<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I love the way she characterizes it as a choice. I can deny, blame, run, numb, and control. Or I can believe that what comes to me in my life is for me, not against me; for my health, & my redemption\u2026 and if I believe this, then it will be.\u00a0My brokenness will do all kinds of things for me I wouldn\u2019t otherwise do. Like Jacob I will discover that: brokenness is the virtue that commends us to the mercies of God.<\/p>\n
The apostle Paul talked about this in 2 Corinthians 12. Where he confessed his own brokenness to the community. He wrote:<\/p>\n
\u201cI was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, \u2018My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.\u2019 Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ\u2019s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ\u2019s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The world we live in has been schooled in denial. When the world senses\u00a0brokenness, it reaches for the quickest way out of it. The Christian story offers another option \u2013 not to mask the brokenness, but to enter into it & wrestle with God. This is really the heart of the good news.\u00a0It\u2019s not our brokenness that is killing us\u2014not really. Our brokenness has been dealt with on the cross. What\u2019s killing us is our hiding, our denial, and the ways in which we try and mask how wounded we are. That\u2019s what\u2019s killing us.<\/p>\n
If we\u2019ll have the courage to believe that what comes to us in our life is for us, for our health & redemption then we can wrestle with God. And when our wrestling is done, if we can hold on through it, and not let go of God, then we will most certainly walk with a limp. This is an unavoidable part of the Christian story. If you wrestle w\/God you will walk w\/a limp.
\nBut those are our qualifications for leadership. You don\u2019t get to lead if you have perfect posture, only if you\u2019ve got a bit of a limp.<\/p>\nHave you ever been in a small group or bible study, when someone really opens up about his or her life, & it changes the whole group, everyone draws upon that person\u2019s courage, and they all begin to open up?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s as though the walls that we\u2019ve built around our hearts can only be breached by tenderness, someone whose heart has been made gentle by the pain of life. That\u2019s the gospel. To breach the walls around our hearts god became human, took on the fallen human flesh, and gave us a new story of redemption.<\/p>\n
So what is it for you?<\/p>\n
What is the defining pain of your life? The pain you avoid thinking about at any cost? What\u2019s the wound you will never get over? You\u2019re just gonna walk with a limp. Is that pain something that reminds you of a time when you wrestled w\/God & God\u2019s presence marked you forever? Or is that pain something that you mask, deny, blame, run from, numb, or try to control? What brokenness are you refusing to share? What brokenness are you hiding & constantly having to try and disguise it or live it down?<\/p>\n
Who could you share your own brokenness with? Who could you trust that secret to? What are the parts of your life that you have not yet taken before God, and wrestled with God until they were settled?<\/p>\n
This story contains a promise for all of us. If we will come out of hiding and be honest with ourselves, with each other, and especially with God, we can expect a fight to be sure. It\u2019s going to be a serious wrestling match, and there will be some real wounds to deal with. We\u2019ll walk with a limp when it\u2019s over. Yet, we will live, and even more than that. God will name us. God will claim our lives and call out of us the striver, the wrestler. We can become the person who has the courage to contend with our own life in the presence of our maker, and, in the end, to stand.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This essay was originally a sermon, delivered to Redemption Church. If you would like to listen or download the mp3, here\u2019s the link. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 One of the consistent claims of Jesus in the New Testament was this idea that the heart matters. The exterior life can be deceptive; we can play games with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1187,1185,1114,1184,1182,1186,1183,474,237,389],"class_list":["post-3687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-the-best-response","tag-brokenness","tag-chuck-klosterman","tag-forgotten-virtues","tag-genesis-32","tag-jacob","tag-jacob-wrestles-with-god","tag-redemption-church","tag-sermon","tag-virtue"],"yoast_head":"\n
The Forgotten Virtue of Brokenness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This essay was originally a sermon, delivered to Redemption Church. If you would like to listen or download the mp3, here's the link. \" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2014\/10\/the-forgotten-virtue-of-brokenness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Forgotten Virtue of Brokenness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This essay was originally a sermon, delivered to Redemption Church. If you would like to listen or download the mp3, here's the link. \" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2014\/10\/the-forgotten-virtue-of-brokenness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Paperback Theology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-28T14:24:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/files\/2014\/10\/broken-300x180.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tim Suttle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Tim_Suttle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tim Suttle\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"22 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2014\/10\/the-forgotten-virtue-of-brokenness.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2014\/10\/the-forgotten-virtue-of-brokenness.html\",\"name\":\"The Forgotten Virtue of Brokenness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-28T14:24:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-28T14:24:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6\"},\"description\":\"This essay was originally a sermon, delivered to Redemption Church. 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