My Message for You Today:
At a Dollar Store recently there was a young mom and her two children waiting in the LONG checkout line. One of the children was a bigger kid, probably 14 years of age. The other was a toddler who looked to be around 3. The bigger of the two had a pack of glow sticks. The baby was screaming, to everyone’s discomfort, determined to have them. So the Mom opened the pack and gave him one, which stopped his tears—for the moment. He paraded in and out of the line with it smiling and contented in the victory of having in his hands what he so desperately had cried for.
But then, the peace was broken when the bigger boy took the glow stick from him causing the toddler to begin screaming again. Just as the mom was about to fuss at her older son for what seemed to be his mindless action, he bent the glow stick until in cracked and handed it back to the baby. As they completed their purchases and walked outside into the early evening, the baby noticed that the stick was now glowing. His brother said, “See! I had to break it so you could get the full effect from it.”
In witnessing that moment, l could hear God saying to me, “In life you have to experience brokenness so I can show you many things. So you can learn many things. So we can become closer. And so I can make you stronger. You have to go through broken times so you can fulfill your purpose.”
That little boy was happy just swinging that “unbroken” glow stick around in the air because he didn’t understand that it was created to “glow” brightly and to be enjoyed most when what was inside was released into the surrounding darkness.
In life, we are most often content with just “being” and living a challenge-less existence. But God knows what is waiting to emerge from us, and to be seen by the whole world, if brokenness is allowed to be experienced for a time.
Brokenness can come to us in so many ways in this life. It may come at our own hands through the bad choices we make. It may also come through no fault of our own through illness or the loss of a job. Some will suffer through divorce. We may have to bury a loved one, or worst of all, loose the closeness of a child through their own choices or even death.
But it is in those moments of desperation, when life seems to break us, that we will be able to see God reveal what He has already placed inside of us—the reason for which we were created. And it is only because of Him that, especially in our brokenness, we can glow brightly as a testament to all he has made us to be.
It is when we turn our broken world into a broken and contrite heart, asking God to preserve us, put us back together, helping us to see how we can live our days in a more meaningful way—that we allow Him to mold us into a life that truly makes a difference. It is here, in this moment, we become more powerful in life for ourselves and for others.
It is only when we are broken that the bright qualities of what is deep inside of us, can be displayed for all to see.
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.” Psalms 51:17
