Tonight, it’s going to be an unusual one. It’s still a beautiful, unscripted, Five Minute Friday moment. But tonight, I lingered a little longer with the family, recalling Karrilee’s reminder for balance; I relaxed into the sofa at the end of a long week – loosening up before jumping online for tweets and posts of inspiration and encouragement. Then I had to detour and go grab the receipt for plane tickets in December as I read an email from one of my best friends from high school saying that there was a tiny, maybe possibility that we’d be home for Christmas at the same time. And then I saw the prompt …This Week: Broken
Go
It would be so easy for me to tell you about all the things that are wrong with me. And I could start way back. Way. Back.
Memories of separateness and disconnectedness that started with a clothespin in kindergarten. Isolation that continued with a lizard hidden with ill intent in elementary school (what? this phobia doesn’t come from nowhere, folks). One misunderstood mistake in Junior High that made me a pariah for months – over a table. Pain seeps through my life like water going to ground in dry, parched earth. It gets worse. There are things I don’t write about; things I barely talk about; things I won’t even acknowledge in my journal because writing them down makes them too real.
But not tonight.
Because despite all the hurt, and the pain, and the deep dark places, this is what you need to know about me:
I am stronger in the broken places.
I used to love to quote Invictus by William Earnest Henley
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Continued here
Like that’s what made me strong. Me. And my will to survive. But the older I got, and the more I went through, the more I realized, it was not about me surviving. It was not about me thriving in difficult circumstances. It wasn’t about me at all.
I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand on the earth. Job 19:25 NIV
My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12: 9 NIV
Let anything that I have come through, let anything that I have survived, let anything that I have been given grace to overcome, stand simply as a testimony to the power of Christ in my life, and what my God is able to do.
Broken and poured out, my life is His.
Stop
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I love this! Adore it, even. It really is all Him, isn't it? So funny that we think for a second it's us!
ReplyDeleteThose broken places do make us strong, He makes us strong! Thanks for sharing, friend. Happy Friday!
ReplyDeleteBeautifully said Rebekah. You are so right.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment love! And so many times I will not write them down because IT DOES make it real. That makes it difficult to hide it away. thank you for the prayer and you must know the only way I make it and am not an alcoholic is because of His Comfort. HUGS!
ReplyDelete"Let anything that I have come through, let anything that I have survived, let anything that I have been given grace to overcome, stand simply as a testimony to the power of Christ in my life, and what my God is able to do." - This. Amen and AMEN!!
ReplyDeleteStronger in our brokenness. Yes! Love broken and poured out. That's my blog tagline and I couldn't recall it to use it in my own post ! Ha! Have a blessed weekend.
ReplyDelete"Things I won't acknowledge in my journal because writing them down makes them too real" yes. That. And ever so thankful that He has covered all the broken places. (And what's so ironic is reading this might make you think that the most painful things were BIG...but the stuff that can sting out of nowhere is the little...)
ReplyDelete"Let anything that I have come through, let anything that I have survived, let anything that I have been given grace to overcome, stand simply as a testimony to the power of Christ in my life, and what my God is able to do. " That right there is why I blog. I love this! I too have things that have been so painful I can't even write them down because it makes them real. Great, great post!
ReplyDeleteAaah yes... I love that we had a similar train of thought tonight... (no surprise, really!) I love that we are stronger - beautiful, even - because of our Brokenness! It's when we bring it all to Him... that we, the bruised and broken, become healed and made whole!
ReplyDeleteLove you, my friend!
~K~
As always, my friend, your gentle graciousness resounds. Your faith in the One who sustains us, holds us and comforts us is obvious. Tender and poignant.
ReplyDeleteI love the Scriptures intermingled with your thoughts. That always leads you back to what really matters--letting God handle everything. Everything.
ReplyDeleteI just want ti give you a hug, and knock out some once upon a time middle schoolers! You're right, you are stronger, and his grace is sufficient. Excellent post, friend.
ReplyDelete