You are broken, yes, but there’s good news
You feel broken. Like something is wrong with you. Maybe hopelessly so. I understand this feeling and the ache that comes along with it. How very painful it is. All of the girls and women I work with in individual counseling feel this way to some degree. Some are even wiling to admit it out loud and what courage that takes. No one seeks out counseling or lands on a page like this because they’re just amazing and life is just great, thank you very much. We land in these places and spaces because something hurts. There is a nagging sense that something is really…wrong. And we sense that that something is…at least partially…us.
I could lie to you and say, “You’re not broken! You’re perfect. Nothing is wrong with you.” But that would just be so…gaslight-y, wouldn’t it? It would be invalidating, not to mention…well, untrue. So I won’t tell you that. Instead, I say to you…
You are broken, yes, and it’s so very painful. It’s painful.
Can we just acknowledge and sit it with that for a second? Brokenness sucks. Ugh. I see you. I’m with you. You are not crazy for feeling that way, or for it sucking.
You are broken. Something is wrong. But, and major emphasis on but, there’s good news. That is not the whole story.
1.) You are not the only one whose broken.
We are all broken. In the words of Cory Asbury, “Anyone who says they’re not, is lying.” I’m broken. You’re broken. You are not alone.
There is not a single human being who functions as he or she was designed to. We are not the “very good” (albeit immature) human beings God originally created in the beginning. Since Adam, we’re broken when we come in.
The brokenness we all share from the jump is our deep mistrust of authority, namely the ultimate Authority, and the rebelliousness that stems out of that. Unbelief is true for you, true for me and true for all of us. From that point on, our experiences either break us more or are part of the restoration project. Usually, they’re a combination of both.
The point is: not one of us is whole. Not one of is un-broken. There are no unbroken creations (or, there weren’t, but we’ll get to that.) Some people are just really good at pretending and hiding their brokenness. But hiding never makes us less broken, only more.
2.) You probably aren’t broken in the ways you think you are.
There’s a real good chance you’ve been made to feel bad about things that aren’t actually broken. Likewise, there’s a real good chance that you’ve had affirmed or called “good” certain things in you that actually are broken and in need of repair.
Part of our actual, shared brokenness is the tendency to see ourselves as the ultimate Authority and knower of things. We like to think that we see perfectly clearly and are well-positioned to point out everyone else’s (and even our own) flaws. But we sure don’t and we sure are not.
In fact, our brokenness ultimately has to do with what I mentioned before — the tendency to turn to everything but the ultimate Authority, Lover, and Redeemer of our souls for direction, healing, and wholeness. Your tendency to grab the Scotch tape and Elmer’s glue to try to fix yourself, instead of letting God do it His (much better) way, stems from what’s most broken about you and me and all of us: a lack of trust in Him.
See? You are broken, but probably not in the ways you think you are.
3.) Your brokenness can be turned into beauty.
Being broken sucks. It really does. We wish we were better people than we are. We wish our bodies and minds and emotions and other people and the freeways and capitalism and all of it functioned the way it’s supposed to. I get it. The brokenness of everything, including ourselves, is…ugh. Trust me when I say that God grieves all of the brokenness with you.
God sees you, He sees your brokenness, and He longs to give you beauty instead. In fact, He can and desires to make you beautiful in a way that will only be possible because you were broken. Your brokenness won’t be wasted, it will become part of the masterpiece.
Have you heard of “kintsugi”? It’s a Japanese art that takes broken pottery and repairs it by joining the broken pieces together with gold.
(Side note: Isn’t it interesting that gold is typically the chosen material for this work? Gold is not the strongest of metals. In fact, it’s the most soft and malleable of the metals. It’s very adaptable. Yet, it has one of the highest melting points of any metal. It’s resilient. Gold is both soft and strong, as is God.)
When a piece of pottery has undergone a kintsugi restoration, it becomes a one-of-a kind creation that is somehow both softer and stronger because of the gold woven into it. It’s somehow both adaptable and resilient, both old and new, both scarred and yet, perfect.
That is what your Potter desires to do with you. He desires to take the broken mess that is you, and turn you into something gloriously beautiful. That’s His will for you. Will you go on a journey with me for a minute?
Most kintsugi pieces I’ve seen have just a few of those golden seams where cracks once were, while the rest of the piece remains relatively as it was. But, imagine for a moment, a piece of pottery that has been broken into a million little pieces. Imagine a clay pot that was once “very good” and functional and whole that, over time, has become absolutely shattered. I mean, just crushed. Nothing like it once was.
Now, imagine that a gifted, loving Potter looks affectionately upon those million shards and broken pieces, sees what they once were (because He made the original piece), and begins to join them together with pure gold. Piece by piece, you watch, as He takes each shard and creates a million-tesserae mosaic that is beyond anything that pot ever dreamt. Can you even begin to imagine the masterpiece when He’s finished? Those million little pieces held together by a million gleaming, gold seams. An entirely new, yet old — scarred, yet perfect — creation. One both unbelievably soft and unbelievably strong. One that can never, ever be broken again.
My friend, you are that clay pot, and God is the Potter who desires to make something beyond beautiful out of you. You are broken, more so than you even know. But, you are also not meant to stay broken. You are meant to be His kintsugi masterpiece. It’s just a matter of setting down the Scotch tape and Elmer’s glue, and trusting the Potter’s way instead.
4.) You are broken, but you’re even more loved.
Read that again.
You are broken, yes, more than you know, but you are even more loved.
There is a Potter who has good plans, who has already been carrying out those plans for your sake. He is the only One who can join together your broken pieces, make something beautiful, and hold you together forever. And He LONGS TO! He knows what you can become. Scotch tape and Elmer’s glue may work for a time, but they can never make us the beautiful masterpieces we long to be. When we are weary of working with double-sided tape and glue sticks, we are invited to call upon and come to the Potter, who ventured down into His very own clay creation to save it.
The only unbroken pot to ever live was God Himself. Jesus Christ — somehow both pure clay and pure gold at once — was broken on our behalf, so that we could be made whole. Brokenness is not the whole or the end of your story, nor is it the most important part.
The most important part is Jesus, the Potter Himself, come to rescue you. No matter what you’ve done, no matter what’s been done to you. No matter how broken you may be or how hopeless and unlovable you feel. You know the Potter’s way that I mentioned? Jesus is it. He’s the Potter’s way of making us whole and healed, of making us masterpieces.
Whether you believe it or not, you are and have been deeply, unfailingly, perfectly loved by God in Jesus Christ. The Potter hasn’t been sitting back, waiting for you to ask for help. He descended into this broken world 2000 years ago, before you were even born, took your brokenness upon Himself, and now offers you His beauty instead. Isn’t that Good News?
I could tell you “You’re not broken! You’re perfect as you are. Nothing is wrong with you.” But, then you’d miss out on the One who really is perfect.
Instead, I offer the possibility that perhaps, your feelings of brokenness, hopelessness, and heartbreak quietly whisper,
“Come to the Potter…
“Come to the Potter…
“Come to the Potter…
and rest in My love.”
