It Takes a Broken Piece-August 2011

I was sitting outside just now, chatting with God. My heart and mind were full and I just needed rest. I watched as twilight set in and told God all the things I was feeling, my concerns, my deepest, heartfelt desires, and then I just watched and listened. I watched that storm and thought about its power, and how that was just a fraction of Christ's power. I poured out to God the things that were heavy on my heart and started thinking about so many peoples' pain and heartache I was exposed to this summer. It started with Joplin but seemed to just be everywhere-in friends lives, random people...I just started noticing how much hurt there was. I finally broke in Guatemala. It has been a long time since I felt that crushing, gut-wrenching pain for people who are hurt, lost, desperate, and hopeless...my heart ached in a way that only God can make it ache. And it was good for me.

Just now I was reflecting on all of that and I started thinking about things that are created from broken things or pieces of something... Broken pieces of rock, sometimes pieces of glass mixed in, and tar leave us with a road we use it to travel; to move forward. Melting down pieces of sand leaves glass; broken things that are put through extreme heat and yet yield something bright, beautiful, and brilliant. Before a house can be created, trees must be destroyed, cut into pieces, then broken again; but leave us with a place of shelter and refuge. I even think of Adam and Eve-God taking one of Adam's ribs and creating Eve, who's name literally means "life-giving." She was made from a piece of something, yet ushered life into the world. Talk about a paradox...

God uses the broken pieces of our lives-hurts, failures, pain, and heartaches, to create something unimaginably fantastic. Often, it looks like a big, painful mess to us. We get lost in the grief, regret, and hopelessness. We want to run through it and get it over with as soon as possible, sometimes running out of the furnace before the piece of glass is finished. We struggle to just survive and forget to live life on purpose, most of the time completely unaware of what is being created in the midst of the "mess." The Bible says that creation reflects the glory of the Creator. If you listen and watch, you will see how so much of little mundane things in life reflect a spiritual truth of how God works in our lives. I don't know exactly who I'm writing this to, but it was on my heart to share; it's good for me to hear too.

Sometimes, it takes a broken piece of life to create something more beautiful than what you started with. Doesn't make sense, right? How can this happen? How could that be true? To be honest, I don't know-I can't completely understand the fullness of how God works, but I DO know that He is faithful and does not "waste" the pain we go through-that He is good and His plans for our life our good, even if they look messy when they are underway. We can trust Him to take our broken pieces and make something whole and beautiful and to be alongside us the entire way.

Isaiah 61:3-4 MSG

God sent me to announce the year of his grace—

a celebration of God's destruction of our enemies—

and to comfort all who mourn,

To care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion,

give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes,

Messages of joy instead of news of doom,

a praising heart instead of a languid spirit.

This same God who sent prophets to His people to encourage them in His truth-the truth that He will comfort those who mourn and care for their needs, He will replace their ashes with beauty, trade their doom for joy, and give them a song of praise in their heart-this same God is alive today and offers this to all of us who call on Him.

Take Him at His promise, and trust that sometimes, it takes a broken piece.