Broken Pieces

For several years my son and I served as the Collection Center Coordinators for Operation Christmas Child. We received thousands of gift-filled shoeboxes from churches in the North Florida region and packaged them in shipping cartons for transport. We quickly learned the most efficient ways to arrange the boxes to get as many as possible in the cartons. We turned them this way and that and searched for small boxes to fit in small spaces. It was like a real-life game of Tetris.

We like it when things fit together well – when there is order and balance. But things in our lives don’t always fit neatly in place, do they? Like that scary diagnosis or the spouse who walked away. Losing your job didn’t fit in with your well-planned life and that hard-headed, rebellious child of yours has turned your home into chaos. Maybe depression has wrecked your tidy world. If only life cooperated with our well-thought-out plans.

When God delivered the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, He commanded them to build an altar for burnt offerings and sacrifices but “do not build it out of cut stones. If you use your chisel on it, you will defile it” (Exodus 20:25). Doesn’t that seem odd? Wouldn’t a perfect God want a perfect alter made of perfectly shaped stones? But God did not want man’s “perfection.” I believe this is because true worship – the kind that honors God – comes from imperfect lives. And isn’t that all of us?

Try as we might, we’re not going to make all the pieces fit neatly together. But when God takes the fragments of our lives, the odd shapes and sizes, and even the rubble, He makes something beautiful. Something that speaks of Him – not us – to a world full of imperfect, broken people. Real life is not neat and tidy. It’s messy and misshapen and shattered. But God can take your imperfect life and turn it into a beautiful testimony of His grace. Put all the pieces of your life – and your heart – in God’s hands Beloved, and worship at the altar of His love.

When You Feel Yourself Falling

I lost my balance this morning. I felt myself tilting backward so I aimed for the wall behind me. When my back made contact, I immediately stopped stumbling. I let my body fall against the solid structure of the wall and it held me upright until I could regain my footing. If the wall had not been there, if it had not been a firm edifice, I would have hit the floor and probably caused some bodily damage at my age. I’m so grateful that wall was there for me to lean on.

I was talking to a friend recently about how the world had changed so much in just my lifetime. We’ve seen incredible advances in technology, education, health care, and pretty much every area of life. But we’ve also seen a drastic downturn in morality, responsibility, and integrity. It’s enough to make your head spin – and throw you off-balance. How do you and I regain firm footing in this chaotic environment? Two things come to mind.

Solomon – the great king of wisdom said, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight (Prov 3:5-6). To keep our balance you and I must trust in and lean on God. The idea is the same as me leaning into the wall to keep from falling. God is the only secure place to stand when everything around us is in a state of flux. How grateful I am that God does not change (Mal 3:6).

The psalmist declared, “When I said, ‘My foot is slipping,’ Your love, O Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, Your consolation brought Joy to my soul” (Psalms 94:18-19). In all the confusion that surrounds us, there is one constant you and I can trust: God’s love. Just as I leaned against the wall for support, I lean against Him, the one sure and solid force that I can trust. I regain my balance in His goodness, kindness, grace, and never-ending, never-failing, ever-faithful love.

It really is a challenge to stay stable in this unstable world, but it’s not impossible when you lean on and trust in God and His love. Beloved, when the world around you is spinning, nothing and no one is more secure and sure.