On Being Broken.

What's my brokenness? I asked.

And to my surprise, I actually got an answer.

Not to say I didn't know I was broken. I did. I know. All to well, I know.

It's all fun and games when we say we will be honest with each other - but even the most honest answer is usually coated with apprehension. Through our "honesty" we still wish to please.

Once a relationship goes so deep, it can't go back. It either has to keep going or it has to remain at a stand still. If someone tries to reverse the relationship, it feels fake. It doesn't really work.

Can we go to this depth with everyone? No. Should we go to this depth with everyone? No.

So who, then? I know I've revealed too much too soon, and felt the pain of a relationship growing stagnant because we both know we want to go further into each other's lives but we can't. We know we shouldn't.

I know we can go to this place of depth and openness with those who will always be in our lives to some extent. Family. And if you are married, then your spouse.

Past this point I am unsure. Best friends? Friends of the opposite sex? Childhood friends? Friends you know will not always be around? Who gets to know? How far should we go?

Just be careful; as I said, once your brokenness is revealed, and a true honesty is established, you must continue on. Or come to a halting stop.

Very beautiful and profound benefits come through this kind of relationship. You will experience the healing of these broken places, because Christ is the wounded healer. He heals our wounds because He suffered in our place. When we enter into a vulnerable relationship we must remember that we are healed and whole in Christ, and our story expresses this hope to the brokenhearted, the pained, the hurting and the bereft.

That our Lord God works in such mysterious ways is truly inconceivable. I'm left in awe at how He has chosen to reveal Himself.