Never Be Afraid of Being a Broken Thing

I stood in the Hwy 28 Feed and Seed store the other day....looking at all the seeds sitting inside their containers and I became acutely aware that if they are never planted....they REMAIN just a seed....nothing more than just a seed.  Then BOOM the Word became so alive in that moment to me "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone" John 12:24  Inside that container the seed has no purpose whatsoever.  It's ONLY when its taken out and used for its purpose that it is useful.  But to do that it has to hit the ground and become BROKEN.

Yesterday as I was reading The Broken Way by Ann Voskamp and I came across a section talking about seeds and being broken....



"The seed breaks to give us wheat.  The soil breaks to give us the crop, the sky breaks to give us the rain, the wheat breaks to give us the bread.  The bread breaks to give us the feast.  There was once even an alabaster jar that broke to give Him the glory.  Never be afraid of being a broken thing."

This short paragraph led me to ponder further of how a seed, which is not useful inside its container   can become useful once it breaks open inside the ground.  It grows and sprouts and before long it flourishes into something useful for others. The same was true at the Lord's Supper.  Jesus was demonstrating the concept of the seed when He broke the bread (representing His soon to be broken body) We read before taking the bread this scripture.... "And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me" I Cor. 11:24.  His body was broken for us so that we could live and have eternal life.  Seeds in a garden fall to the earth and break open and we get to enjoy the goodness from that seed once it produces its fruit. BUT it first has to break open.

Brokenness (suffering) in our own life is inevitable.  It's part of the plan. As Voskamp writes,

"There's absolutely no tidy pattern as to who gets pain and who gets peace.  This is the deal we ALL get...guaranteed suffering. (brokenness)"

But how can that be a good thing?  How can our brokenness lead to goodness...to "fruit"?  Although brokenness hurts and cracks us to pieces...it's those racks that allows not only for HIS LIGHT to get into us in our misery and darkness....but it's how light shines through us to others. In Japan the Japaneses use a technique for repairing broken china called Kintsugi- the art of "healing" broken pottery with gold.....it transforms brokenness into the most valuable part of the piece.  I know for me whenever I have had a broken piece of china I have tried to glue it back together so that NO ONE WOULD SEE THAT IT WAS BROKEN.  Isn't that true with us as well?  We try to hide our brokenness in order to appear "whole"  We try to be strong when we really are weak, broken people in need of repairing.  The Japanese are demonstrating the gospel (whether they realize it or not).  The gold strands become the most valuable piece of the broken pottery.  It's shattered useless pieces are HELD  together with beautiful gold lines.  Just like us....we are stronger when we allow God's beauty to be reflected through and in our brokenness.

 Ann goes on to say, "blessed-lucky are those who cry, blessed are those who are sad, who mourn, who feel the loss of what they love---because they will be HELD by the ONE who loves them.  There is a strange and aching happiness only the hurting know---FOR THEY SHALL BE HELD"

 I love that word...."HELD".  If you have ever experienced brokenness as a believer I am sure you also felt "HELD" at some point by Jesus.

Maybe our brokenness is like those seeds inside the jar at the Feed and Seed store.  Totally useless inside the jar.  Just like us....if we appear to this hurting world as "put together" with our cracks (brokenness) hidden it will never benefit anyone.  BUT, once the see is broken...it then become abundant to to others.

  Ann states, "God does great things through the greatest wounds.  God sees the broken as the "best" and He see the best in the broken and He calls the wounded to be the WORLD CHANGERS."

So through our brokenness we help others.  Through a seed's brokenness, it feeds others.

In the last paragraph of her chapter, "What to Do with Your One Broken Heart", she writes, "For a seed to come fully into it's own, it must become wholly undone.  The shell must break open, it 's insides must come out, and everything must change."

How well do you hide your brokenness?  Are you a "super-glued" person appearing to this hurting world as whole but totally messed up?  Through your brokenness, God gets to use you for His glory.  Why don't you allow yourself to be "HELD" by Him and let Him mend you with His "golden strands" of mercy and grace and......

"never
be
afraid
of
being
a
broken thing."