We’re all broken! Just look around. I’ve often wondered if I’ll ever be “normal.” We live in a fallen world…with a fallen and sinful nature. That came with our packaging in the womb.
No one has their act together, regardless of their post on social media.
We’re all living in the same “camp-ground” of a sinful nature that needs drastic attention. Yes, we’re all imperfect, flawed, dysfunctional, messy attitudes with fears and habits and vocabularies that aren’t the best.
Everyone is broken, but no one likes to admit it…. do we?! But isn’t it refreshing to see a person who is “real, vulnerable, transparent and honest about themselves.” People relate to and long to snuggle under the blanket of another’s vulnerability.
Brokenness is a “gift” that we’d rather not unwrap. But God will unwrap it for us through our day-to-day circumstances showing us through our trials, challenges and disappointments that we’re walking through, and that His strength and enabling grace will be enough for the details of our journey.
Brokenness, in God’s eyes, is beautiful. But God sees it with a different lens!
Our brokenness brings not only His blessing on our lives, but opens our lives for God to bless others in their journey because of what His grace & power has walked us through. It can be an attractive quality in that it can serve as a magnet and “connecting point” with people.
My husband and I yearned to have a family. I was adopted, so this was a very real longing. In general conversation, most people will ask you how many children do you have. No children yet was our response. I thought that maybe my womb required some medical adjustment, so I made an appointment with a physician.
The nurse he employed happened to attend our church. When she asked me for lunch one day, she asked me the purpose of my upcoming visit. I shared my concern. And to my surprise she asked two questions that gave me God’s answer. 1) Is Jesus the Lord of your life? 2) Is He Lord of your womb.
Remember the song a few years ago, “God Makes all things Beautiful in His Time;” and I might add, “In His way.”
His work is like an eye surgeon clearing the cataracts and blurs from our eyes so we begin to see our broken dreams, desires and areas of character adjustment through a different lens…..God’s lens.
Before His touches on our vision, we saw our life’s agenda and dreams shattered, and why would God possibly say “no” to what we had in mind for our life’s journey. Our dreams were dashed when God said “no.”
Not long after, I sensed God saying to me. “You love having people in your home. Had you ever considered that everyone who comes to your door or in your life is a child, sent by Me, for you to love?”
Not long after, we had friends who were visiting in our home on holiday, and the moment they were leaving our home, my friend turned to me and quoted verbatim what God had shared and was now in written form in my journal. I had plans for a 6 lb, 8oz child. God had other plans.
God confirmed His response to me through a cartoon caricature on the wall of an eye doctor. DEAR GOD….I CAN SEE YOU MUCH BETTER WITH MY NEW GLASSES.
It wasn’t my womb that needed the surgery, but my eyes. He showed me His perspective, and my life has never been the same. For we have hundreds of children that we’ve nurtured by our hearts, not my womb. Even today, after all we’ve been through, I would choose “His Will” over my own.
So, in a “wonderful sense,” the brokenness of our dreams has given us a realized reliance and trust on God’s will being the best for our journey: and, the acceptance of His plans and purpose has placed “Him on display” for His purpose instead of “ours.”
Brokenness is a beautiful and delicate tool for our transformation, and often
our broken wills, life agenda and expectations become the mouthpiece of our ministry to others. I continue to learn and embrace my limitations and disappointments because then, and only then, can we experience His power at work in us.
God’s “goal” is to make us more like His Son! Why? So people can have a clearer and more accurate portrait of who God is and what He is like. “His residence and work” within us will often frame what people think of His Son.
He uses our broken hearts, broken plans, broken dreams and crippling weaknesses to display His power, grace and love. It’s then that we’ll begin to see how He weaves His plans into a beautiful tapestry that speaks life into others.
GOD ISN’T LOOKING FOR SUPER, SIGNIFICANT SAINTS, BUT ORDINARY PEOPLE
TO DO A SIGNIFICANT WORK IN AND THROUGH.
He longs to take the “ordinary events” of our life, brokenness and all, and create an “extraordinary” journey…. a story that points toward Jesus; and brokenness prepares us for usefulness in our world, and purifying us for an eternity in His presence.
For those who have received Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, when we see Him, our eyes will be open to see what He was up to all along in our journey down here. For then and there, we’ll be all He had in mind when He designed us. Psalm 139
What kind of results do you want in your life….
yours or His?
Cups of Cold Water 