Love and the Chain of Brokenness

Rachel Joy Scott was a student at Columbine High School, Colorado, U.S. Rachel was one of the victims of the 1999 Columbine High Schools shooting. She was one of the 13 students who lost their lives in the incident. Rachel was known as a loving person in her high school. She was loved by most people in the school compound. She even befriended the gangsters only to tell them they are still loved. She invited them to a weekly Bible study. Many students were affected by her mere friendship. Sadly, the shooters who were once her classmates took her life.

After Rachel’s death, her family started “Love Chain” that is still influencing many people. In their “Love Chain” they teach and create a chain of love among high school students. Love can be propagated and Rachel’s life has been a witness even after her death. Love can be channeled through befriending the stigmatized and isolated individuals. It works by the way.

I have seen this in the life of Fenan Befkadu, my very own sister. During her high school years, Fenan served as a channel of love. While I was a fulltime minister in the church, she used to bring some of her school friends who were once labeled, “gangsters” in the school to the Bible study I used to lead. Some of them are serving in the church now. It works.

Pardon me. I’m not going to tell you countless examples of “love chain reaction”.  That’s not the topic of interest for mine today. I want to remind you a chain many of us forget most days.

The Inevitable Consequence of “Love Chain”

Although Rachel was known to have been a channel of love, she was not the smiley - always happy girl inside. Rachel’s diary speaks a different kind of person. Most days she was broken and she suffered loneliness. A line from her biography reads, “Why God? Why do you allow me to suffer this much?” She wrote her complains almost every day.

You may wonder why would a love channel like Rachel would feel this much loneliness and brokenness. The answer I got is that being a love channel has an inevitable consequence. She was continuously broken by people who wouldn’t respond to her expectations. She was a channel love but she served one way. She loved people who couldn’t understand her. This is the sobering fact.

I’m not sure if that is your story too. I’m not sure if that is Fenan’s story too. I haven’t read her diary. But I can guess maybe you or Fenan have experienced the inevitable consequence of being a love channel.

The Chain of Brokenness

Brokenness exists because expectations have existed in the mind of love. Genuine love cannot exist without expectation. Human beings are fallen creatures and cannot always produce the same result to meet the expectations; hence, we break. That is why it is inevitable to experience brokenness in an ideal setup of love. The astounding fact here is, not just love but also brokenness can be channeled.

Rachel only knew she was propagating love, and she thought she held her deep broken spirit inside. However, not only love but Rachel was also channeling brokenness. Those who were taught under her to love unconditionally will also experience brokenness. They will eventually experience hurt and most of them will be strong enough to hold their feelings to themselves and their diaries.

When being a love channel becomes contagious and a society develops to spread unconditional love into their neighbor, there starts another chain. This new chain is called a chain of brokenness. We will become not only love channels but also channels of brokenness.

The Chain Starter

I know that you are already aware of who started the “chain of love”. It was neither Rachel nor her family nor does any creature can take the credit for such a baffling idea. It started in heaven, in the spiritual realm, between an eternal Father and an eternal Son with an eternal channel called Spirit of Love existing in the middle.

The Spirit of Love that existed between the Father and the Son was propagated into this fallen world through creation. God breathed love into his creation. God breathed his own image of love onto Adam believing Adam would become the perfect channel of God to propagate his love into other creatures. The chain started in the unity of the triune God.

God is not only the starter of the love chain reaction but he was also the starter of the chain of brokenness. God was the first being to be broken of love. Although God imprinted his own image of love on Adam, Adam couldn’t meet the expectations of God. Adam broke God’s heart. There the chain of brokenness started.

Since then God has been the most broken being of all. He not only became the first channel of brokenness but he became the most hurt of all. He suffers many betrayals from his moral creatures every day.

The Climax of the Divine Chain of Brokenness

God’s unconditional love brought the inevitable divine chain of brokenness. In the meantime He couldn’t stop propagating love into his moral creatures although human beings couldn’t meet his perfect summons of love. We failed him continuously doing every means of failure, every day, not to meet his criteria. If we could read God’s diary, we would be incomprehensibly broken.

God, however, displayed his ultimate love by sending his Son with whom the chain of love started in the beginning. The Cross became the ultimate manifestation and channel of love. No love has been signaled like the cross. It speaks from centuries in the past as the most powerful tool of love. God was crucified to channel love in this broken universe.

The cross bears much weight when we also consider the fact that the cross is also not only the ultimate channel of divine love but also the place where the climax of divine brokenness was displayed. Jesus suffered in the hands of his sinful creatures. He was spitted on. He was tortured and was rejected by the people he came to show love. The Father couldn’t see this brokenness.

At the center of history, the cross serves as the ultimate channel of love and the climax of the divine chain of brokenness.

I, the Channel of...

I love reading stories of young men and women who started movements of love, such as Rachel Joy Scott. They also bore the weight of brokenness in their diaries or in their heart. I admire people who like the cross serve as the chain of love and brokenness.

I wish I could say the same about me. I wish I could describe myself either as a channel of love or brokenness. It always strikes me if I am serving well as a channel of love. I don’t care much for brokenness. I love it. My heart wonders, however, if I have been a good channel of love.

The command is to love God and people. I am not sure if I have served as a good channel. Sometimes, I am broken. My diaries are online blogs where I share myself with those who are intersted in my writings. Now, I conclude perhaps I have served as a good chain of brokenness.

The journey to learn and propagate love continues…