We are all broken people

Well during mass earlier today, this thought came to mind after a reflection on my recent experiences with God, "Are we all broken people living in this world?" And as mass when on, I went much deeper into this thought. And I think in many ways, my recent posts have brought upon this post. I guess that God always uses our various experiences to ultimately bring Glory to the name of Jesus!

And the recent experience of my struggles with accepting & loving the people I meet everyday, has also really brought me to think about my struggle of an invisible mask I wore at times without myself even realizing it. For me, as a Leader in my parish, this has been a real dilemma, I always have that mindset that although I am struggling in my own walk with God, I always am aware that, "At least I have had an experience with God. There are so many people that have yet to have that experience." And I guess in many ways that's the reason why I may have worn this invisible mask!

But as I continued to reflect upon this, the question of "What Jesus would do" came to mind! And if there was 1 thing Jesus wasn't at all, was being a proud man. And even when Jesus was struggling, He wouldn't deny his struggle and even embrace & accept his struggle. But most importantly, he would acclaim that it is by God's strength alone that will allow him to surpass this struggle. For me, that is what a humble man of God would do even when he has to carry a heavy struggle on his shoulders. And as my reflection continued, I felt that we must change the way we look at struggles.

For so many of us involved in ministry, we may see struggle as a weakness and also carry the perception that anyone struggling is either not close to God or something that is negative. And this is even worst for guys, simply because Guys have an image to upkeep. We always want to be seen as strong & mighty. At least this is the culture constantly being spread. So much so that when any teenage boy tears, another teenage boy will see it as extremely weird. I can relate in a way cause throughout my period of struggle, I felt scared to share with anyone my struggles due to my fear of being judged. I was so used to people seeing me as strong that I wouldn't know how they'd react when they saw/heard me struggling so much in my faith.

But after this experience of sharing my struggles with someone no one would expect I'd share with, I realize today at mass that, 'We are all broken people'! It doesn't matter at all how long you've been in ministry or even how long you've spent time in prayer! We are always broken in one way or another but we are always called to recognize, accept & embrace our brokenness and allow God to fix us all the time. But to also bear in mind that our prayer life makes the difference of how broken we are! And especially, as a guy, I fear telling others that I'm broken but today this revelation that 'We are all broken', speaks volumes of what kind of Men for God we are set out to be!

May we as people of God, never be afraid to embrace the brokenness in you! God will neverever want us to wear a mask to show people to show that we're alright when we are actually dying to seek for a listening ear and pour out our struggles in this demanding world!

Spread this culture of love & acceptance, People of God!

Praise God!