Broken People, Beautiful Messes

My life theme in 2009 was beauty from brokenness. I went on a night hike around the base of Pike's Peak with a few friends that summer. My friend, Ben, asked me to share my story while we were walking. It's hard not to be honest and feel close to the Lord when you are standing on the side of a mountain, gazing up at the blackest sky and the Milky Way.

"Ben, I am a broken mess right now. And I am so thankful that that is the Lord's specialty."

My new community group met for the first time last night. I was amazed at how many said that  "broken mess" perfectly describes their life right now. Maybe you are there, or maybe you can remember a time in your life when you have been there. You felt or feel unworthy or confused or hurting or lonely or angry. I have to tell you, you are in good company. The Jesus that I serve specializes in making broken people incredibly beautiful.

• Moses - He was kicked out of the only country he had ever known (Egypt) for murdering a man and then was rejected by one of his own people, but the Lord used him to lead Israel.
• Paul - He killed Christians! He stoned them, threw them in prison, and then the Lord caused him to lose his sight. Paul was a broken man when one of the very men he persecuted showed him the way to Jesus. He was beaten, rejected by his own people, and thrown in jail multiple times and the Lord used this broken man to change the world.
• Rahab - This woman was a prostitute and lived in a city that the Lord had doomed to destruction to make way for His people Israel. She hid some of the Israelites and the Lord spared her and all her family. She is an ancestor of Jesus Christ!
• David - He was a king and a man after God's own heart who slept with another man's wife, had a baby with her, and had that same man killed to cover up his own mistake. Talk about broken. Yet, the Lord heard David, used him, and still called him a man after God's own heart, and made him an ancestor of Jesus Christ, as well.
• Solomon - This is the man who wrote Ecclesiastes and spent the whole book talking about the meaninglessness of life. He had tons of wives, was the wisest man to ever live, owned everything his heart desired, and was king of God's people, yet he was unhappy. But God used this man to build His temple. 
• Esther - She was taken from her home, her family, living in a foreign land under a government that wanted to kill her people, the Jews, and she was forced to go before her husband, the King, to beg for her life and the lives of her people. God used her boldness to save a nation!
• Ruth - She lost her husband and the rest of her family except for her mother-in-law. She committed to moving with her mother-in-law to a foreign land and then worked to provide for both of them. She was an ancestor of Jesus, as well!
• Mary - She was unmarried when the Lord placed Jesus in her womb. Her fiance didn't want her, her people stoned those who were pregnant outside of marriage, but the Lord changed her brokenness to beauty and she became the mother of the Christ child.
• Gideon - He was from the smallest tribe of Israel and one of the weakest in his family and the Lord used him and a handful of mighty men to do battle for Him.

The Lord's specialty is healing and using broken people. This is SO encouraging to me. Check out these verses...they are promises that the Lord will use and walk with you through your brokenness:

• "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11:28-29
• "Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7
• "Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall." Psalm 55:22
• "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and He saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:18

This is the Lord that I serve...one who meets you in your brokenness and doesn't let you go through it alone. Curl up in His arms and let His love heal you in your brokenness. He is so worthy and so desirous to make something BEAUTIFUL out of the messes in your life! He is the ONLY One who can accomplish that kind of miracle.

Listen to this song by Amy Grant called "Better than a Hallelujah." One of the lines says, " We pour out our miseries. God just hears a melody. Beautiful the mess we are. The honest cries of breaking hearts are better than a Hallelujah." I pray that you will be encouraged and see the beauty that the Lord WILL BRING in your brokenness!


Kariss