“Isn’t it beautiful, the way we fall apart? It’s magical and tragic all the ways we break our hearts.”

This is the chorus from a song that has been stuck in my head for weeks now. The song is by We As Human and I think it is brilliant.

Think about it, how beautiful is it to completely break and crumble only to find your strength?

With dead week and finals week finally here, I’m kind of freaking out. I’m stressed with projects, studying and end of the year activities all looming around my head. You could say I’ve reached my breaking point.

I feel like the world is suddenly moving at a pace faster than I can compete with and summer is the only thing on my mind. I’m ready to be done with the semester.

Isn’t it funny how we come all this way to start giving up? If my semester was a marathon I would have been going strong until mile 26. Mile 26 is the one that makes me want to forget it all and walk away now.

How dumb is that? I’m closer to the finish line now than I ever was but that’s when I need the most help and encouragement and determination.

This year has taught me that mile 26 is the mile that leaves us capable for the most growth. It shows our true character and gives us a chance to either shine or crumble.

Metaphorically speaking I believe mile 26 is exactly where God wants us.

This year, if I have learned anything at all it is that trials and downfalls have the capability to bring you closer in your relationship with the Lord than anything else. To me it’s absolutely incredible how much we need Him if we actually are conscious in what we’re doing.

What I mean by that is I think it is very simple to become numb. Numb to the world, your feelings, hurting, relationships and even needs. It’s almost like we’re set on auto pilot. Everything is working but we’re completely unaware of all that is happening. We’re not having to make any conscious efforts so we just hang out and ride along.

Until the plane crashes. How much more aware are we of things when crisis strikes? In the middle of a tragedy we automatically switch to manual and everything is put on high alert.

It’s like when you were little and you fell off your bike and scraped your knee. You knew your knee was there before, but you weren’t continually thinking about how it felt or why and how it was working, you weren’t concerned with telling it to bend and move to pedal the bike, you just rode your bike. All you had to worry about was where you were headed. Then when you scraped your knee you immediately became aware of how it felt. You had to stop in that moment wherever you were, assess the situation and take care of it.

You had to analyze the depth of the injury and for a moment you weren’t worried about your destination but rather how you were going to take care of yourself in that moment or location.

I think life is a lot the same. We ride through a lot being completely unaware of our surroundings or self without even realizing we’re doing it. We’re just focused on moving and getting somewhere. We forget to appreciate the skill of even being able to ride our bike.

Going back to a plane crashing, how often do you think a person that travels constantly stops to think about how incredible it is that we can fly? How often do you think they ponder the fact that being able to travel by sky is actually quite a miracle? How often do you think they are reminded of the danger?

If they travel often and are used to being on a plane, these are thoughts that don’t regularly occur. Things have become second nature, we get used to them and the awe factor is gone. Until something goes wrong.

Let’s say a seasoned traveler is on a trip and the plane starts to malfunction. Things start to go terribly wrong and the idea of crashing suddenly becomes a reality. They start a downward spiral until miraculously the pilot pulls off an emergency landing right before they hit the ground.

I can assure you that traveler is immediately aware of the magic that is traveling by air. They immediately appreciate every plane ride they have ever taken that went off without a hitch. They won’t step on another plane without being reminded of the damage they have the ability to cause. They suddenly understand the seriousness of the situation and understand the risk and are aware of how thankful they should be in the first place.

So what do scraped knees and malfunctioning planes have to do with anything? Well friends, I think they are both a great illustration of life.

As I’m sitting and watching it rain, I can’t possibly think of anything other than God’s beauty. How crazy is that, it’s storming outside and it’s a direct correlation with God’s wonderful artwork.

That alone is my point. Sometimes the storms in our lives are the most beautiful things about us. I believe God uses storms in life to cause us to appreciate the sunny days.

Sometimes I think we get a tad too comfortable in our own surroundings, that we become blind to all that is happening, we become satisfied in being stagnant and enjoying whatever is in front of us.

That’s not how we were meant to live. Not even close, we’re called to a radical faith of being aware, alert and present in all situations.

Sometimes I think God lets us fall off of our bike or almost crash in that plane ride to wake us up. He uses little storms and rocks the boat strategically enough to wake us up and call us back to consciousness. As We As Human would say, He lets us fall apart.

Why you ask? Easy, so we can see our need for Him. The worst part of becoming numb and going through life with a “happy to be here, I won’t bother anyone” attitude is the complacency and thought that all you need is yourself.

When God comes in and rocks your world, maybe sometimes even sends you a situation you don’t think you can handle, just know it’s happening for a reason. He has a plan, and every scar we obtain is just a reminder of where we’ve been and that we have overcome.

You have to know that the storm will pass, I think some storms are simply there to remind us that we can’t do it alone.

So. Here we are at mile 26, it starts to rain and we fell and suffered a scraped knee. We have a few options, we can give up and quit, or we can look for help to finish the race. (this scraped knee is one that inhibits your ability to get back up and walk on your own–just play along)

I think God let us run all that way by ourselves because when we make it all that way and then fall, we appreciate the final driving force much more. Had we fallen at the beginning, in mile one, and received help up we would’ve had the other 25 miles to forget we ever got help and think we were running the whole race by ourselves.

God brings us to our lowest points sometimes to show us his great love and mercy. A love that can reach to the lowest point of any place and bring us back to our Creator.

Having to lean on Him to help us back up allows us to recognize where the ability to start the race in the first place comes from. It shows us that in all actuality the other miles we ran were only possible because of Him as well and we appreciate that we made it as far as we did to begin with.

In the end if we make it that far only to fall apart and have to cry out for help, we end up wanting to finish to show our Helper that His efforts were not wasted. We want to finish strong so we can hear Him say “Well done”.

If you’re in the midst of a plane crash, bike injury or even just struggling to finish the marathon in your current season of life, I want you to stop. Let yourself fall apart to be repaired by Christ. It’s ok to realize you aren’t good enough to do it all on your own.

You alone can’t save that plane from crashing, you can’t heal that scraped knee by willing it back to health and sometimes that 26.2 is .2 miles too far to run on your own. Realizing that may be one of the most admirable characteristics a person can have.

Admitting you need help from the one that made you in the first place doesn’t show weakness. It shows quite the opposite. Strength.

So allow yourself to fall apart and let your heart break. Lean on Him in these times and allow him to put you in a place of healing and peace. We’re called to be warriors for Christ, taking up our cross daily and we can’t do that if we are in a place of comfort or complacency. Even more importantly, we can’t do that without Christ and the Cross on our side.

“When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand firm forever.” –Proverbs 10:25