(excerpt from post on 7/21/08)
Yesterday, the Pastor's sermon was about brokenness. As he spoke, you could hear the brokenness in the room and more breaking occurring. He conveyed how you can allow yourself to be broken to be used by God.
I found myself comparing my own brokenness to a vase I have sitting on my mantle. The vase is chipped and there is a piece of it laying next to it on the mantle. This is not the first time it has been chipped. I have picked up the pieces of the vase before and they have been carefully pieced and glued back together to attempt repair. Yet, each time it gets broken it becomes more and more difficult to repair. When it broke this last time, I wondered if it would be able to be repaired. At some point, things do break beyond repair, the pieces can't be glued back together and even if they could be glued back together - would it be "presentable"?
In so many ways, I see myself in that chipped, broken and superglued vase. I've experienced my own brokenness and piecing back together. I've been carrying around the glued together fragments of my brokenness and picking up the pieces for years now. And sometimes I feel pretty banged up. When another chip occurs, I wonder how much more can I take?
Then yesterday, I was reminded that even when I feel broken beyond repair God can take my brokenness and make something new and great out of it......if only I will let it. In Him, I can be made whole and new (2 Corinthians 5:17 - .....all things are become new!). I am reminded of a song that has been a favorite of mine for a long time. It is by Crystal Lewis - "Beauty for Ashes" and it is based on the verse Isaiah 61:3 - "To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified." It's a pretty awesome comparison to think that we can go from a broken, chipped up vase to as strong as a tree in order to glorify the Lord....but that is His desire for our lives.
It is my prayer that when I see me, I won't see a chipped up vase. And it is my prayer that God will take my pieces and use them to his Glory to see me firmly planted.
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