Jacob Armstrong - Breaking Open: How Your Pain Becomes the Path to Living Again

PRAISE FOR BREAKING OPEN

This is a deeply meaningful book about life and faith. Compelling, moving, and beautifully written, it will touch your heart and deepen your faith.

ADAM HAMILTON, LEAD PASTOR OF UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF THE RESURRECTION, AUTHOR OF PREPARE THE WAY FOR THE LORD

What do you do when you come to the end of yourself, when your life isnt turning out how you had planned it? Weve all been there and yet this is often where Jesus finds us and makes us whole again. My friend Jacob Armstrong is a wise and patient guide, walking us through his own seasons of despair and pain, pointing us to the One who bore our sorrows. If you need rest for your weary soul, if your heart is heavy with hopelessness, this book will be like a cup of fresh water. Read it and see if God will meet you in its pages.

DANIEL DARLING, DIRECTOR OF THE LAND CENTER FOR CULTURAL ENGAGEMENT, COLUMNIST, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SEVERAL BOOKS, INCLUDING THE CHARACTERS OF CHRISTMAS, THE CHARACTERS OF EASTER, AND THE DIGNITY REVOLUTION

Pastor Jacob is a friend. We probably dont agree on everything theologically, but we share a mutual conviction that Jesus is a precious help to those suffering in the throes of affliction and pain. In Breaking Open, he shares biblical wisdom for understanding how God not only is near to us in our pain but uses it in remarkable ways to shape our lives for his glory.

ERIK REED, LEAD PASTOR OF JOURNEY CHURCH, PRESIDENT OF KNOWING JESUS MINISTRIES, AUTHOR OF UNCOMMON TRUST

The common denominator of humanity is pain. We all hurt. Sometimes it surfaces as an acute heartache, or as a lingering anxiousness, or as the consequence of a tragedy. And yet sometimes it seemingly appears out of nowhere. During my darkest seasons of grief, I turn to a basic prayer, a phrase as full of questions as it is full of faith: God, just dont leave me alone. Jacob is attuned to the aches of living and his words provide a knowing companion as we lament what we have lost and yearn for new life ahead. These words kindle hope and a thread of belief that God is indeed near to those breaking open.

ANDREW GREER, SINGER/SONGWRITER, AUTHOR OF TRANSCENDING MYSTERIES, COHOST OF THE PODCAST DINNER CONVERSATIONS WITH MARK LOWRY AND ANDREW GREER

Breaking Open

2022 Jacob Armstrong

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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ISBN 978-0-7852-5832-2 (TP)

ISBN 978-0-7852-5854-4 (eBook)

ISBN 978-0-7852-5941-1 (audiobook)

Epub Edition May 2022 9780785258544

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021952567

Printed in the United States of America

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To Mom and Dad

Our first breath was a cry.

We have laughed. We have cheered.

We have praised, encouraged, complimented.

With the same mouth we have questioned, criticized, ridiculed, and cursed. (You kiss your mama with that mouth?)

We have whispered.

We have unintentionally raised our voices.

Some of us have been trained to sing. Some have fought hard not to stutter.

Some of us remember a moment when we found our voice. Some remember when our voice strangely changed. Some of us have done that helium thing one too many times.

We have made a lot of different sounds for a lot of different reasons (sounds out of our mouthsstay focused).

We voice many different utterances over the course of a day. And there have been hundreds of hours in our lives when we have not made a peep.

But our first breath was a cry.

It was the same for all of us. Before we ever learned a word in our native language, we all shared the same native cry. An appeal for help. A sound of desperation. Or was it fear? Or was it just a sound to say, This is quite a lot to take in in one moment?

We were greeted by our loved ones: Welcome to the world! Our response? We wept.

If at your birth you didnt cry, there was someone there hoping you would cry, who then helped you to cry. Why?

The first cry of a newborn baby is a kickstart to the lungs. It prepares you for a world where youve got to know how to breathe, and youve got to know how to cry.

Its funny that, even when weve moved well past infancy, the emphasis on breathing remains and we usually do it without even noticing, while the importance of crying seems to lessen as we age.

This book isnt about learning to cry. It is about finding your life. That may or may not involve tears for you. I dont know. But it will involve an exercise that is similar to what happened when you breathed your first breath. It will involve an openness to life that is equal parts terrifying and exhilarating. In the same way your first cry was not voluntary, this also may seem like something you dont get to choose.

There is a second birth that happens in our lives. It is often viewed negatively as a breaking point; some even refer to it as breaking down. Some of us spend our adult lives trying to outrun it.

I think our lives are about something much bigger than simply outrunning this breaking. I think life is all about breaking open. Like our first birth moment, our second invitation to life is dramatic, beautiful, and scary. And the only way we are going to keep breathing is if we open our mouths to cry.

Thats how it started for me. It started with crying again. And it started with Daniel.