When you feel broken, what do you fill yourself up with?
There are so many ways that we can feel broken…
- A friendship goes away
- The family we desire to have isn’t coming to fruition
- The job we are anticipating doesn’t happen
- Our life is hit by addiction; from ourself or from others
- The marriage you have isn’t like the ones you see on social media
- It seems like the life you have will never include financial freedom of any kind
And the list goes on and on…
What happens when those broken places happen? How do we fill that void?
Have you ever heard of the Japanese method called Kintsugi? It’s super cool!
“Translated to “golden joinery,” Kintsugi (or Kintsukuroi, which means “golden repair”) is the centuries-old Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with a special lacquer dusted with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. Beautiful seams of gold glint in the cracks of ceramic ware, giving a unique appearance to the piece.
This repair method celebrates each artifact’s unique history by emphasizing its fractures and breaks instead of hiding or disguising them. Kintsugi often makes the repaired piece even more beautiful than the original, revitalizing it with new life.
There are 3 predominant styles of Kintsugi: crack, piece method, and joint-call. While, in each case, gold-dusted epoxy is used to fix the broken pottery, the methods themselves vary. Objects mended using the crack approach are touched up with minimal lacquer, while works restored with the piece method feature replacement fragments made entirely of epoxy. Finally, pieces fixed using the joint-call technique employ similarly-shaped pieces from other broken wares, combining 2 aesthetically different works into 1 uniquely unified product.”
{https://mymodernmet.com/kintsugi-kintsukuroi/}
I just love this concept. And to me, it translates perfectly as to how God repairs the broken places of our life. We are so precious to Him ~ when we break, His heart breaks for us too. He doesn’t simply open a bottle of super glue, squirt some onto the broken pieces and shove them together hoping that the glue will do the trick. He cares too much for us to be so cavalier with His precious creation.
Since God is the one who put us together, He’s the best one to turn to, to be put back together after a season of brokenness. But there is much patience involved on our part. The Lord uses those moments in our life to refine us; to bring out the shine in our life. The rough parts are softened and the pieces that don’t necessarily fit back into place are removed. That’s when our patient heart needs to be on high alert!
While the Lord is working on the “golden repair”, we must wait.
The. waiting. is. so. hard.
We don’t want to hurt. We don’t want to feel broken. We don’t want to look busted-up in the world’s eyes. We want to give the appearance that we are okay…that we’re “fixed.”
In that impatient effort of so desperately wanting to look “normal” and unbroken, we look to quick fixes. We seek a relationship that we think will fill our aching soul. We turn to food, or sex, or pornography, or drugs, or alchohol…so many things…and we allow the lies of the devil to invade our mind. We begin to believe his lies that those earthly things will fill the void left by brokenness.
All that we’ve done is attempt to fix our own brokenness with something that won’t last…like wax. Wax was created to melt…not to be an agent of repair. Wax is temporary. When our brokenness comes to the surface again, and the heat of life is turned up to full blast, the wax will melt and all that comes out of our heart is hot anger and all the sadness that we’ve been trying to keep hidden.
What was meant to be a lesson in our life, ends up burning the people around us.
When we take a step back and truly wait for God to handle our life-repair the right way, then our brokenness is filled with the goodness and the shining glory of His love and connection. He brings the broken pieces back together and we become an even stronger version of our self. We become a force to be reckoned with {if you will} who had entered a battle and came out victorious!
Ephesians 2: 8-10 “For it is by grace [God’s remarkable compassion and favor drawing you to Christ] that you have been saved [actually delivered from judgment and given eternal life] through faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [not through your own effort], but it is the [undeserved, gracious] gift of God; not as a result of [your] works [nor your attempts to keep the Law], so that no one will [be able to] boast or take credit in any way [for his salvation]. For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us].”
Don’t be afraid of the broken or cracked places in your life ~ God is getting ready to fill it with the refined gold and silver of His great and mighty love! And for heaven’s sake, if God fills you with silver and someone else with gold and someone else with a whole new piece ~ don’t compare your gift with someone else’s! God will absolutely repair you the way that YOU need to be repaired! Your “work order” won’t ever get mixed up with another person’s. You are in great hands with God doing the repair work!!
Blessings,
René
Broken & Blessed~Adventures in Gratutide! 