It is not always my favorite thing to learn the things that the Lord has to teach me. At this very moment I am writing this blog by speaking into my speaker phone because I broke my wrist on Saturday night. Yep, I tripped on a yoga mat in the garage and fell on my wrist.

Oh, and let me tell you that it was the right wrist that I broke which is the hand that I use. I might also add that I was committed to babysit the grandkids a number of times in the next six weeks and Christmas is just around the corner. I really don’t like broken things.

As I sat here on the couch with my arm elevated on pillows, I asked the Lord what I am supposed to learn from this. His answer came swiftly.

You need to learn to live with broken things.

Ugh. Evidently the only way that I could learn this lesson was for the Lord to cause me to sit still for 6 to 8 weeks without driving or doing much of anything.

Everything within me protests broken things. Broken families, broken marriages, broken relationships, broken dreams, broken hearts, broken promises, and broken bodies… I want things to be fixed, to be healthy and whole. And today the Lord told me that I need to learn to accept broken things. When I heard those words whispered to my soul I knew it was true. As much as I detest broken things, I know that The Lord creates beauty from brokenness.

God’s will is not the brokenness, it’s how we walk out the brokenness.

It’s remaining steadfast in faith when everything has been stripped away. It is leaning on Him as you put one foot in front of the other. It is relying on him to give you enough good things that will enable you to endure. It is refusing to believe insults and lies, and exchanging it for the truth from above. It is choosing to bring good into the situation. It is maintaining a spirit of humility. It is continuing in your prayer life and trusting God’s sovereignty.  Every single moment of the struggle is meaningful. It is unseen to our eyes yet it is preparing something for us in eternity. It is doing something.

Every believer enters a season when God allows the heat to be turned up. The Bible refers to this as the refiner’s fire. It is the process by which He makes our faith more beautiful. This is what the brokenness is really all about.   An earthly refiner molds and polishes gold until he can see his image and Christ refines us so that His image is reflected in our lives.

I am going to view this season of brokenness as a season to rest and to spend more time with the Lord…kind of a spiritual retreat.  I am going to stop fighting against brokenness and realize it is part of the human condition.  And  I have a sneaking suspicion this will be a season for a little more blogging…!  Stay tuned.

We can allow broken things to leave us shattered in pieces… or we can allow Christ to bring beauty out of the brokenness.

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  – James 1:2-4