Let God Mend your Brokenness
Written by Susan Chan
I am fascinated about the Japanese art of restoring broken ceramics called Kintsugi. Kintsugi is fundamentally about ‘beautifully mending a broken thing.’ The skillful Kintsugi master repairs the broken piece and recreates an even more beautiful art piece lining the cracks with gold or silver and lacquer. The result is often more stunning, and a beautiful new art piece is created.
Our God the Master Repairer can make something new and beautiful out of your brokenness. He can do a better job than any Kintsugi master. Isaiah 64 v.8 says,
We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
A bible example of how God can turn your brokenness into blessedness is Naomi (Ruth 1,2). Her story models for us the importance of putting the past behind and by faith move on towards the future. Although the future was unknown to her, she was willing to trust God to make a new future for her. Her situation and circumstances were desperate and hopeless.
Naomi was willing to let go of her past and surrendered to God. She could not undo the past. Maybe she made mistakes in the past when she left her hometown to go to a foreign country. Spiritually speaking, she might have backslidden while in the foreign country of Moab. She suffered many losses and tragedies. At first her husband died, then her two sons died. What a tragic story. She had lost her sweetness, her joy and had become bitter. But she was willing now to let go of her painful past and let God direct her to a new life, even though the future seemed so uncertain. Naomi left the past to move back to where she should belong. She came back to her God.
God’s grace was shown to her in such an amazing way – spiritually, she was restored. She came back to God and God restored to her “the years the locusts have eaten” (Joel 2 v. 25). God mended her brokenness and made something new out of her life. She moved from bitterness to blessedness.
As leaders, we are unwittingly stuck in our leadership development and lose our passion for ministry because of unresolved brokenness. The key to experiencing new vision, new enthusiasm for His work is to let God mend our broken past.
