Creativity can be the path from brokenness to wholeness.

I had the privilege of listening to a young friend share her life story at our life skill group. She comes out of a different racial and socio-economic background from my diverse group. Yet, as she began to share what it was like as a 3 year old to have her dad cheat on her mom, the eyes of my teens lit up. Her story really wasn’t much different from the stories of my teens, that couldn’t believe that someone that looked like her didn’t have it together and was really a clone of them.

I have to come to understand that everyone deals with their hurt and brokenness differently. I read lots of articles today about how recent college graduates end up working at low wage jobs. The reality is that everyone is experiencing disappointment and brokenness because of circumstances they didn’t create. As my friend shared her heart and went deeper into how she held back her emotions over the years make it tough to trust men. My group identified with knowing how to forgive and not have a grudge against a deadbeat dad that is never going to care or be there.

My friend seemed to get bogged down answering the same question about dealing with hurt, frustration and anger from most of the group. My hope was to have her be specific about how her dance and acting pursuits had helped work through the heartache of her dad’s poor choices. She was quick to share that even though her stepdad is an awesome person it took years for her to let him into her life. The real question is how do we overcome circumstances which we didn’t cause and not allow them to stop us from succeeding and experiencing life to its fullest?

What is fascinating is that most of my group enjoys listening to music, dance and self-expression even though they don’t perceive themselves as being capable of much. My friend’s story got one of my teens to open up in a way that I hadn’t heard before. This gal is an academic genius type, an incredible dancer and overachiever who confessed that this was her way of dealing with her dad’s absence in her life. She too admitted that she doubted everyone around her and even God because of her dad not choosing to be in her life.

What became apparent as we listened to each other is that expressing yourself is so key to finding wholeness and seeing brokenness and anger take a backside. The difficulty is that we are too concerned at what others think and what will they say if I decide to pursue what I love. My friend made it clear that her acting and dance passion had to be supported by a job that she didn’t love but had caused her to do the simple things like; show up on time, be a person of integrity and go the extra mile. This has worked in her favor as the company allows her to take months off to travel and do child theater.

As we finished our time of soul searching and being honest the sense was that all of us were still processing our past and hoping that we could get a handle on how forgiveness works. The lesson that my friend brought before us was that going after what you love in life is so important. Yes, being creative and thinking outside the box seems to help bring perspective on the disappointment and brokenness we have in life. I was thrilled to see how well my actress friend brought light to the path to wholeness for my teens and myself.