This rumor, for that’s all it is at present, shoots a bolt of
hope through you. You immediately begin searching for any sign that this story
could be the truth. You search for days following any lead you can find, until
finally you discover the stories are indeed true. Now that you know the truth
nothing will stop from you from getting this vaccine for yourself. You scrap
everything you have together to pay for the medicine knowing that such a cure
will probably cost you all you own; but when you get there you find the vaccine
is free. All you had to do was show up and ask.
If this scenario was true wouldn’t you do anything to attain
the medicine? Wouldn’t you stand in lines for days just for the hope that you
might be one of the lucky ones to receive it? And if you received it wouldn’t
you want to shout it from the rooftops? Wouldn’t you want to tell everyone
about the wonder of this cure? How the power of it saved you from the very clutches
of death. What I don’t imagine you doing is going home, locking yourself up
inside, and never telling a soul. Such a huge life changing transformation
would make us want to tell everyone we met about it and where to find it,
especially our loved ones.
If you had the knowledge to bring life back to the dying
wouldn’t you? Because you do, right now, in the here and now. The world over is
dying of a plague called SIN. It sweeps over the hearts and lives of men,
women, and children. No one soul is spared from the ugliness of it. It brings
only death, but in the darkness there is hope for there is a cure for this life
consuming illness. Jesus is the cure. He came to be the remedy we all need so
desperately.
So the question is why aren’t we sharing it? This joy is
completely awe-inspiring and life changing and yet we never utter a word to a
hurting and dying world. If this plague were real in the sense of the scenario
above we’d be doing everything in our power to save those we know and probably even
those we don’t.
I’m sure this analogy has been used
many times before, but I wanted to add something else. Sin leaves wounds—either
ones we’ve caused to ourselves or ones caused by others. Sin can leave behind
scars just as many diseases leave disabilities and scars in their wake. A lot
of the time we see these as handicaps that God can’t use, but it is the broken spirit
that he most often uses (2 Cor.
12:7-10).
Most of us have become adept at hiding our wounds because
they often leave us feeling vulnerable and defenseless. We put on our shells
and build up our walls. But just because we hide our hurts doesn’t mean they
aren’t there. Everyone has wounds; some of us just hide them better. Some are
less severe than others, but everyone has scars that mar their hearts and souls.
It’s impossible to escape them in this world. Some wounds may be mere scratches
while others leave deep gashes through our very souls. The good news is that
all wounds can be mended over time, but the truth is the deepest ones will
always leave scars. They will be a part of who we are no matter how much we
might wish otherwise. These scars may shape us and make us into something altogether
different, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be healed, that we can’t be used. God
can use these scars in ways we can’t even imagine. We may see ourselves as
broken beyond repair, unusable for anything good, but God sees it so
differently from us.
The country duo,
Thompson Square, sings something very
similar to this in their song “Glass.”
The chorus particularly speaks to the subject:
We may shine,
We may shatter,
We may be picking up
the pieces here on after.
We are fragile,
We are human,
We are shaped by the light
we let through us.
We break fast
‘Cause we are glass.
We are
shaped by the circumstances around us and so often those situations leave us
feeling battered and bruised. Sometimes the hurt done to us is just too much
and we’re left feeling as though we’re forever picking up the pieces; wondering
if we’ll ever feel whole again. The problem is we’re fragile beings. Just as glass
breaks easily so too do we; we are easily hurt and it’s hard to piece our
hearts back together once they’ve been shattered. It doesn’t take much to
splinter a mirror, a glass, or a window. Too much pressure and we’re left with
spidery fingers spreading out across a formally perfect surface. Our hearts are
very similar. It doesn’t take much and we’re left with scars that will always
be there.
However, there is hope in our brokenness.
Just as a beautiful mosaic or a breathtaking stain glass window is made from
broken glass so too can we be made into something new and beautiful. Our
brokenness doesn’t have to be the end- it could be just the beginning. It is in our
brokenness that God truly works. He takes the weak and broken things of this
world to truly let his glory shine forth for the world to see (1 Cor. 1:27-29).
Just think of the all the people in
the Bible that God used that we would have written off from the very beginning.
Rahab was a prostitute. Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and sold as a slave.
Not only that but he spent seven years in prison. David was an adulterer and
murderer. Paul persecuted the church. The Woman at the Well had gone through 5 “husbands”
and yet God used her to bring her town to himself. Everywhere you look in the
Bible God is used broken people to work his purposes.
Notice how all of these people were
broken before God chose to use in big ways them. They weren’t perfect, they definitely
weren’t whole, and I’m sure there where days, maybe even years, where they felt
as though the world was falling down around them. That is the point though--we must be broken
before the true work can begin. Psalm 51:16-17 states,“You do not delight
in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not
take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is
a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”
A couple of
months ago this point was brought up by someone in my parent’s church. She used
the analogy of tilling her garden as a comparison to our lives; that just as
the earth is broken to make it pliable and fertile, so too must we be broken.
We can’t begin to plant our gardens until we break up the ground. Once it’s
soft and pliable only then can we plant our seeds. It’s from this broken place
that fresh vegetables and beautiful plants start. Just as these began someplace
scared and broken and came out whole, so too can we. It is through the breaking
of the soil that we receive new abundant life. Our scars are a great place for
us to beginning growing. For from scars new life can begin and fresh things
sprout.
It is also through our broken times that we grow closer to
God. It is in time of pressure, hardship, and hurt and that we seek out the
Lord the most. God gives us these times to test us (1 Peter 1:6-9), discipline
us (Heb. 12:5-11), and bring us closer to him (Psalm 34:18). True these moments
are not what we would have chosen, but they are needed for us to grow in him.
In 2 Cor. 12:7-10 Paul pleads with the Lord to take away an affliction
he is suffering from. The Lord responds and tells Paul, “My grace is sufficient
for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Instead of complaining Paul
responds with a much more positive attitude. In verses 9-10 he writes, “Therefore
I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power
may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I will delight in weaknesses,
in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak,
then I am strong.” How many of us have this attitude when it comes to our own
sufferings and hurts? We beg and plead with God to remove them, but maybe we’re
looking at our problems the wrong way. Maybe we need to start seeing that God is
at work and start rejoicing in what he is doing. It doesn’t mean the situation is
going to be any easier, but the attitude we choose can change how we see the
circumstances.
There is comfort in the pain though. God gives us many
promises throughout scripture that he is with us through the pain.
Psalm 34:18 states, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
Psalm 9:9-10 “The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in
you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.”
Jer. 29-11-14b “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give
you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and
pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you
seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares
the Lord.”
Isaiah 43:1b-3b “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you
pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk
through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames
will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the
Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”
1 Cor.
4:16-18 “Therefore we do
not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being
renewed day by day. For our light and momentary
troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So
we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen
is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
All through the Bible
God gives his promise to be with us through it all. The ups and downs, the high
points and the low points, the deserts and oasis’, the storm and the calm, he’s
going to stick with us through it all. Nowhere we go is outside of his reach
(Ps 139:1-18).
God is going to be with us in the breaking and in the healing and he’s going to use the experience to
bring glory to his name (1 Cor. 1:26-29, 2 Cor. 12:7-10). We just have to learn
to be pliable even when we don’t understand and it hurts like crazy.
"GLASS" by Thompson Squared
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