Episode 3: Repairers of the Breach

Sometimes, things fall apart. They break. It could be by accident. It could be with cruel intent and malice aforethought.

Walls crumble.

Cars stall.

Systems fail.

Hillsides erode.

And relationships – well, they can get shattered.

People were built to love. They were fashioned in God’s image and likeness, and it is in their blood to take joy in the companionship of another. Bonds of love are forged that bind us one to another; and those relationships bring us satisfaction, happiness, and strength for the journey.

Nothing is more precious to us than the gift of those relationships. Siblings, spouses, boon companions; BFFs, grandparents, colleagues; co-workers, neighbors, chance encounters with kind strangers. Humankind was wired to love, to relate, to share.

Sometimes, though, relationships are shattered. Love erodes. Spouses disappoint. Siblings fight. Parents misunderstand. Kind words are replaced by bitterness and anger, resentment and jealousy, feelings of betrayal or abandonment. Where once there was a bond of love, now there is a breach – a chasm of separation and division that severs the tie that binds and threatens to end the relationship.

Isaiah writes about ones who will be called repairers of the breach. I have found much inspiration in that simple phrase: repairer of the breach. What would it look like to commit to a way of being that sought to repair the breach? How would I live differently if, experiencing the pain of deep separation, I actively pursued the building of a bridge that spanned the great divide?

Races clash.

Cultures clash.

Genders clash.

Generations clash.

Nations clash.

Between parties large and small, histories are written of damages done to relationships that matter. I hear a clear call to be a repairer of the breach.

I invite you sometime today to think about a relationship that matters to you, but that for some reason has been damaged. In that time of reflection, think about the noble calling to be a repairer of the breach, and ask yourself: what can I do to be an agent of healing; what can I say that will repair the damage?

Perhaps, then, you too will be a repairer of the breach.

Gentle soul, may you find joy in the relationships that matter. Thank you for listening. Until next time, let us all be open to the sacred that surrounds us on our journeys into the mystic.