Understanding brokenness

We know (or should know) that our strength comes from God. God wants us to depend on Him, and sometimes He will drive us to brokenness in order to get His point across.

On page 106 of One Yard Short, Les Steckel writes about a woman in church who told him about brokenness after he was fired by the Minnesota Vikings after the miserable 3-13 season:

Back when the Vikings had just fired me, a woman in a church crowd had used the term (brokenness). After I finished speaking, she came up to me and said, 'I believe God removed you from that position to put you through brokenness.'

Brokenness? What's that? I told the woman I had no idea what she was talking about. And I was being honest, for even after the Vikings fiasco, I still didn't get it.

Steckel eventually understood brokenness in 1990, when he was fired by the New England Patriots.

I understand brokenness. I felt extremely broken during my childhood -- my parents divorced when I was 4, and my stepdad didn't treat me very well. I have been working to deal with my parents' divorce and the treatment by my stepdad my entire life. But I know that God was with me during that entire time and ensured that I made my way through it. It's a paradox: when we are weakest we are at our strongest, because at that point we are relying on God.