Re: The Beauty of Broken
Clearly, their life is put together.
They have a balanced budget.
Their children always obey.
Their car never breaks down miles from home.
They never lock their keys in the car.
Their children were effortless to potty train.
Their fashion taste is flawless and immaculately accessorized.
They are unfamiliar with bad hair days.
Their doctor is not on a first name basis with them or their kids.
Their parents just celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary.
Their teens are respectful and running a multi-million dollar start up from their bedroom.
They never write an appointment on the wrong time, or day, or week.
Their animals never puke or age or misbehave.
No, a million times, no.
They are real people.
The opposite of most of those things is actually true of them at one time or another.
And, in the midst of it, they are beautiful. The Beauty of Broken.
Elisa Morgan shares a vivid picture of her own broken families and the years of heartache that God held her hand through even as she managed an influential ministry to mothers of preschoolers. She shares the raw reality of her conversations with God through some of those heart-wrenching situations.
She showed the beautiful reality of 2 Corinthians 7:10, "For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death." As Christians we can embrace our broken lives and live without regret as we watch God do a new thing.
I could also relate to so much of what she shared about the inner judgmental dialogue that takes place so hypocritically at times. I know that in truth, "There but for the grace of God go I." And yet . . .
My silent, sinful line of thinking blames choices for problems that others face. If they trusted Christ more, parented better, ate better, prayed harder, attended a different church, homeschooled, had more discipline, etc., etc. They would not be facing this.
Then, the troubles come knocking on my door and I realize that brokenness is part of each of our lives. This sinful world offers no guarantee of easy days if we follow some formula. The beauty of it is that our brokenness does not disqualify us from being used by God. He shines through our cracks and continues to touch lives even as we amass more personal experience from which to speak about deep pain, loss, sin, and messes.
We live in a social media world that looks so picture perfect and jumps from mountain top to mountain top while ignoring, or failing to photograph, the valleys in between.
So, just remember that in between all those rose-colored Facebook posts and Instagram shots are the unspoken updates and the unsnapped photos of everyday life.
The silence of 75 percent of your friends on any given day is evidence of:
the sick days,
the missed devotions,
the crazy busyness,
the failed class,
the lost temper,
the sleep deprivation,
the fight with their spouse,
the blah meal,
the premature end of a season,
or even just the normalness that pervades most of normal life.
Nothing to brag about, nothing worth commiserating over, nothing to add to your prayer list -- just daily frustrations (and simple joys, too) of living life in my own skin with other human beings around me all day.
The beauty of a mosaic requires brokenness first.
For a seed to grow, it must first die.
God creates beauty even when we gave up looking for it.
Whether it is the ordinary everyday, or another messy, broken memory in the making, God will create something beautiful with the pieces.
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