On August 2, 2021, John’s wife, Susan, passed away after a two-year battle that began with a benign brain tumor followed by stage four cancer. After her death, he struggled to describe where he found himself emotionally and spiritually. As he talked to God about this struggle, he sensed God impressing on him, “You are broken but graced.”

What does it mean to be Broken but Graced? It means to recognize the reality that we are broken people who live in a broken world. We struggle with wounds of the heart, fractured relationships, past failures, grief, and depression. We desire to be whole. To be healed. We are broken.

It is in those broken places that God meets us and we experience His grace. In 2 Corinthians 9:8, Paul wrote, “And God is able to make all grace (every kind of grace) abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” We are graced. We are daily undergirded by His strength, peace, comfort, and healing. He is the One who steadies us and gives us rest. He awakens us each morning gracing us with hope and the sense of His Presence.

Graced is the constant knowing that we don’t have to carry this load for He will enable us to get under it and carry it with the strength He abundantly supplies.