FINDING BEAUTY IN BROKEN PIECES

Have you ever tried picking up the broken pieces of a broken ceramic objects or glass and putting them back together? If so, wasn’t it a conscientious task? First, depending on the size of the destruction, you would probably have to search all over the place to recover the broken pieces. Then after collecting all the broken pieces, you are left with yet another formidable task of putting the broken object back to its original form. God makes broken things beautiful. Consent God to heal the wounds of your past heartbreaks and people who left and anyone who couldn’t fully love you. Allow Him teach you the lesson behind each heartbreak. Broken things are despised as meaningless, but God can take what has been broken and remake it into something better, something that He can use for His Glory. Sometimes, God just wants you to surrender. This is a key element of Faith. Surrendering is an act of strength, not weakness. Because it takes a great deal of strength and wisdom to admit that you don’t have all the answers and you can’t change your life. Broken things and broken people are the results of sin. A life of broken pieces is not the life you would want! Living the life you don’t want to have is a frightening place to be. It is difficult to even speak loudly. It is dark, lonely and the time that many of your friends are far away from you. Sleepless nights are the standard of your life. Have you ever felt, or do you feel “shattered” “broken” or as if your life was just in “pieces”? My speculation is that a lot of you will certainly say no. If so, then I urge you to really pause and think about your life both past and present. Have you ever lost a loved one or dearest friend? I would suppose that most of you will possibly think about death. There are times when that loss is from a broken relationship as an alternative. Does it hurt a little or less? Not at all, and sometimes it brings more grief and despair because the person is still alive but not within our reach. I suppose here is the pain from that would make you feel broken or even torn into pieces! How about a job loss or maybe even from not getting hired when you felt the interview went great and you had a lot to offer the company? I would even go as far as to say that if you have children and they have been not listening to you that you also felt the pain as a parent. Remember, being “Broken” can and does look differently to everyone and it has nothing to do with your social-economic status, race or gender. For me, the real challenge that I want to throw out to you is this, think about those times of “brokenness,” and see which one of these four relationships it would fall under. Your relationship with God, Self, Others or Nature. Believe me; it will fit into one or maybe more of those four! The most amazing part of this is that not only does your “brokenness” match into one of these four relationships, but it is the same for everyone else. Hopefully, now that is something to really reflect on! If you were to assemble your “pieces” and carry them around with you, I believe you would find some else who has “pieces” that would fit together with yours. I want to remind you that it is our brokenness that binds us together as human beings. If we would all just try and fit our “pieces” together we could and would become the people God intends us to be! Is there something in your past that you believe is holding you back from God doing a great work in your life? What if you were to give God all the broken pieces and let Him use those very things to pave a path to reach others with the glorious news of Jesus Christ? According to the Word of God in Jeremiah (17:14) says; “God, pick up the pieces. Put me back together again. You are my praise!” Each of us, with all our successes and failures, heartbreaks and joys, scars and all, have been given an opportunity to make a difference in the world. Do not misjudge what God can do with a life just surrendered to Him. Give God all the broken pieces for who knows if you are where you are today “for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14). Are you aware of the painful feelings of loneliness, sadness and heartbreak you likely feel when you are disconnected from your loved one and unable to share love? Relationships are fertile ground for learning about ourselves and about our unloving behaviour that creates the very disconnection we don't want, and about the loving behaviour that brings aliveness, joy and passion to our relationship. The sharing of love is the most wonderful experience in life. You connect and share love when you are open-hearted with other people, kind, caring, gentle, tender, understanding and compassionate. You connect and share love when you are open to learning, listening well and caring about your own and other's feelings. Heartbreak has a predictable way of driving us to search for reassurance in the most unlikely of places. When pain is fresh, we look for hope more urgently. Regardless of your situation or your relationship with a loving God, His thoughts towards you are kind, and His words to you are comforting and full of redemption.