the flaw is the feature

Why are you alive right now, walking around planet earth?

When it comes to figuring out (discovering is probably a better word) how we are uniquely equipped to best be helpful to others (ie “what is my purpose in life?”) there is a powerful truth that I believe deeply but also resist with every fiber of my being.

You will be most helpful to others from the place you have been most deeply wounded. Your purpose in life is somehow connected to your pain.

Whether it’s things that have been done to you or things that you have done to yourself, it doesn’t really matter. These wounds or scars make you uniquely qualified to help others who have experienced or are going through the same thing.

Your greatest glory will come from your deepest scars.

Your greatest glory will come from your deepest scars.

So many different cultural and religious traditions teach this.

In the New Testament of the Bible we’re given this image that as humans we are these extremely fragile clay pots but with wonderful treasures held inside. We’re both: fragile jar and valuable jewel.

You probably already know about Kintsugi, the Japanese practice of taking broken pottery and mending it with gold, ironically drawing greater attention to the cracks.

The crack, then, becomes the most beautiful and unique feature of the newly mended bowl or cup.

The flaw is the feature.

Putting those two images together, it’s through the cracks that the treasure inside of you comes out to nourish and heal others.

If, like so many of us, you’re struggling to find out “why am I here?” begin with your biggest fears, the thing in your life you’re most ashamed of, or your place of greatest pain.

And that’s challenging on social media or in a professional context where we walk around touting the most monetizable or hireable qualities about ourselves.

I’m not saying that you have to put your darkest secrets on blast in an interview; there are such things as boundaries and appropriate discretion.

But the more you lean into your story, especially the parts you want to look away from or hide, the more you will find your voice.

Your story and your voice are unique. No one else on this planet has what you have.

And there is someone else out there right now that desperately needs the presence and power that only you have.

This also means that your most powerful piece of art, song, story, book, leadership lesson, online course or sermon will be your most personal and your most vulnerable.

This also means that your most powerful piece of art, song, story, book, leadership lesson, online course or sermon will be your most personal and your most vulnerable.

One of Thornton Wilder’s earliest plays, The Angel that Troubled the Waters, ends with this line from an angel speaking to a doctor who desires healing for himself:

“Without your wound where would your power be? It is your very remorse that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men. The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living. In love’s service only the wounded soldiers can serve.”

“In love’s service only the wounded soldiers can serve.”