Beauty for brokenness makes you wonder what this could mean, or whether it is logical, does it make sense?
Reading the other way “Broken for beauty” seems to help. “Beauty for brokenness” suggests there is a reason for something to be broken. But this reason is both “for” and “because of”. I am going round in circle again.
“Beauty for brokenness” is the first line of a song, its second line is “Hope for despair”. The song has a lot of words that often make us take a second look –
- justice
- rights
- peace
- joy
- poor
- cruel
- scorched
- ills
- plundered
- suffering
- can’t speak, etc.
Musically, this song has a good ‘flow’. Songs in 3/4 times has a certain kind of self-imposed limitations (the strong – weak – weak beat). Perhaps because of that, the composer of this song makes best use of very short lyrical phrases. Consisting of 4, 5 or 6 syllables to a phrase, they each in itself are powerful lyrical stuff. For example, ”Refuge from cruel wars, havens from fear.” What are these? We don’t have wars, but others have, and they have no choice. They live in fear. A lot of us also live in fear for a lot of other reasons, relationships, health, uncertainty.
Song? Well, some hymn books have included this. Others will say this is a hymn.
“Cities for sanctuary, freedoms to share.” Where are the cities that provide sanctuary? I need freedom myself, none to share. Further, “Peace to the killing-fields, scorched earth to green.” This is making sense, peace, green and freedom is what I want. The killing-fields does not make sense. Is peace possible?
This song is more than myself, or yourself, or your community (or church). If you sing this, you are singing in a conversation to God to say what you understand about him – he cares for the weak and poor. There are many more people who want to hide and run away from God, than to claim that God does not understand. So, we acknowledge that God understands. He was one of us, experienced the world as we did, was broken, in despair, but he won over the cruelty and fear of death. Think about it, if you were born at the time of Jesus, most of us would probably be at the bottom rung of society, at the top of which is the Roman government. Nobody understood ‘democracy’, ‘freedom’, ‘choice’ then.
As you sing this song, you will be taken up by the contour of the melody; it somehow wraps you around; the tune is quite ‘singable’. But more than that, it has a tremendous energy that drives you forward. I can’t decide whether this energy is due to a sense of urgency, or conviction.
It is certainly not a song of praise of the usual kind – it is not exactly saying God has been good to us and we are praising him squarely because of that. It’s a great discipline to pray and praise him both “because of” and “for” him.
I should do the same, sing this song “because of” and “for” him. Praise for him, or to him? I prefer for. “To” flows quickly from the tongue, but “for” has a greater meaning.
From “sunrise to sunset”, an aspect that we and our science have no influence over, God is in control of everything. Wait…. The wars? The poor? The Scorched earth? The can’t-speak? People say “God is love”, you probably agree or disagree with that. But do people say “God is mastermind”? I can’t recall such. So we can’t expect God to control the world, every element of it, and yet we want our freedom – not only personal aspect of freedom, but society, economics, scientific. Science has given up controlling the world, it’s learning how much we cannot understand in the way we understand what we think more and more of a topic that becomes larger.
More than that, God wants to be part of our lives. The chorus begins “God of the poor, friend of the weak.” Wow, that’s me. By the way, “God of the poor” is the formal title of this song.
“Give us a compassion we pray.” Oh, compassion for what? I get that God cares for me, I am poor and weak, I need justice, peace, no more suffering.
“Melt our cold hearts, let tears fall like rain.” The music here is not in the style of a question, instead it sounds very much like a declaration. Our hearts get colder and colder because it’s me, me and more me, me. And no, no, the tears are not about ourselves.
There will be some who say, really, I am at the bottom rung. And yes, God has been there, and more, he has been through that and he can and will take you through and out of it. Yes, some of us are in dire situation. This is reassurance from God to us, he cares, he gets you through.
“Come change our love, from a spark to a flame.” Read (sing) that a second time, not “God, please come change my life,” it’s “come change our love”.
Love for what? You need to sing the song.
There is wholesomeness in this song. It speaks about the nations learning God’s ways, seeking salvation in God, and praising God – the song / hymn probably has that in that sequence, and all three. There we go, I said earlier “it is not exactly saying God has been good to us and we are praising him about that.” This song, God is making a hint to us – if you sing it, it’s no longer a hint. The message is that God will act in caring for the people of the world. Great, he will. But we are the ones acting in response to God calling us into action. It’s not something fictional or abstract, we know what poor, cruel and loneliness is about. We love because God first loves us. To wait till we are ok enough to help others? The song says “Make us content with the things that we need.”
Maybe you think you want to avoid this song. Do take a break. Speak with your friends, chat about this in your group / church.
The words will stay with you for weeks. God needs your obedience, and your action. You are here today probably others have shown God’s love and mercy to you, and spent time with you, just as God has, and wants us to do. He will change our love from a spark to a flame.
