Recently, I have fallen in love with P!nk and Nate Ruess’ song “Just Give Me a Reason.”  The melody of the song is magnificent.  Yet there’s something about the words that reach into my heart.

It’s the lyric “Not broken, just bent.”

As Christians, what would it mean to call ourselves bent instead of broken?

I ponder the subjects of original sin, total depravity and these centuries-long idea that humans are so fallen that we can’t redeem ourselves – at least on our own.  What if that wasn’t the case?

What if we are just slightly dented?  What if we have the potential to smooth over our dings and bends because of the love of God, the leadership of Jesus the Christ and the strength of the Holy Spirit?

This is where Holy Week comes in…

Jesus died on a cross.  Did Jesus die to repair a brokenness? Or did Jesus die in the process of showing us ways of evening out the indentations on our souls and in our societies?

If we are made in God’s image, maybe we aren’t completely broken.  Maybe we just have been crushed and squashed by life, and it’s time for us to find God’s image within each one of us once again.

There is hope in knowing that we aren’t completely broken.  There’s possibilities for tomorrow.  There’s new ways of finding grace.  There’s dignity where we haven’t seen it before.

So I’m sticking with the school of thought that we are bent and not shattered.  And quite often, bends, twists and dents make us more beautiful anyway.