If you had told me five years ago that this is what I’d be doing with my life, I would have laughed. How could God use a broken mess like me?
Yet here I am. Being used by God to let others know they’re not alone in the messiness of life.
This week, I gave a talk at a local MOPS group called Beautifully Broken: Find Your People by Showing Your Scars. We laughed. We cried. We looked deep inside at the things that feel too vulnerable to put on the table. And we leaned into community and put them on the table anyway.
These women. They blessed me.
As I heard the conversation around each table during discussion time, my heart leapt with joy at all the authentic real life that was being shared. It’s hard to put yourself out there. We fear rejection for being our true selves.
But something amazing can happen in community…
We might actually find our people. The people who can hold our brokenness as we hold theirs. The people that really do understand what we’re going through because they’re going through it too.
At a speakers conference last year, I learned that an organization that’s already close to my heart (Compassion International) partners with speakers (like me) to bring kids out of poverty in Jesus’ name.
I got to bring Compassion along with me this week, and y’all — FOUR kids got sponsored! My heart is exploding.
Now, four kids may not seem significant but think of it this way: four kids will now have their physical and spiritual needs met. The families of these four kids will be able to breathe a sigh of relief that they are not alone in raising their child. Four families will now know the amazing gift it is to sponsor a child – to offer hope and love to them – and to receive hope and love back from them as they get to know each other.
I am beside myself.
The fact that God is using *this* broken mess to bring hope to moms and families here in the Bay Area through MOPS and now around the world through Compassion leaves me in awe.
If you’re still in the middle of your mess, hang on friend.
God promises in Isaiah 41:10 that He will be with you. He will strengthen you, help you and hold you up through all of life’s storms. He uses our brokenness and shows us that because of His love and through His love, we are actually made more beautiful for having been broken.
A prayer for you…
By better understanding God’s love for you, may your eyes be open wide in wonder and belief at all that God can do and is already doing in and through you.
May you embrace the truth that you are fully known and fully loved by God and therefore given a chance to live life to the full through amazing gift of Jesus Christ.
May you do the vulnerable work of being known and knowing others as you ACCEPT God’s love for you and REFLECT His love to your family, friends and neighbors – both near and around the world.
Amen.
