5 Minute Friday - BROKEN

It's been a little while since I've joined in with Lisa Jo Baker to do 5 Minute Fridays. Here's a little recap if you are just joining me or if you have forgotten what 5 Minute Fridays are all about. Basically, Lisa Jo gives a prompt word - today's is "Broken" - and then you write for 5 minutes without editing, without agonizing over word choice. You just set your fingers on the keyboard and go. After you're done, you can link up your post here. I hope you'll join in the fun!

Broken usually has a bad connotation. Recently, I dropped my Kindle (which I had just gotten at Christmas this past year) on the floor. Immediately, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach but I hoped that when I picked it up, my fears would be unfounded.

They weren't.

The screen was a mess of dots and weird lines. I called the Amazon hotline with trepidation. I figured since I dropped the Kindle, they wouldn't replace it with a brand new one. After all, it was my fault.

But I was pleasantly surprised (okay, jubilant) to hear the girl on the other end tell me that since the Kindle was still under warranty, they were shipping out a new one right away. I had my new Kindle in my hot little hands within just a couple days, and I was so pleased to see that I hadn't lost any of my over 100 books on there either! Whew!

God is kind of like Amazon in replacing what is broken.

The thing is that to God, brokenness isn't a bad thing. So many times, I want to hide my brokenness from God - like He can't see it anyway - and I don't want to come to Him to fix it. Instead I try to piece myself back together, but just like my Kindle, there are weird lines and I'm not very functional.

But because Jesus paid for my sins, I'm still under warranty. God promised me a new life, a whole life. He promised to continue working on me until the day I die - isn't that a relief? When I bring my brokenness to Him - even if (or I should say when) it is my own fault - He makes my life into something new and functional. Yet, I'm still me.

I don't know how God does that - make me a new creature that is essentially still myself only transformed - but He does.

You know, when I got my new Kindle, I told everyone how awesome Amazon was for replacing it for free when I was the one that dropped it. I want to be that quick and eager to share my brokenness and how God put me together again with others, too. But others need to hear our stories of how God restored us in our brokenness, so they in turn can feel brave enough to bring their brokenness to God, too.

I don't know about you, but it is always amazing to me that it is at my lowest, most broken that God steps in and gently, tenderly rebuilds me. Instead of feeling shame or heartbreak, those moments of restoration, of God building me back to what He created me to be are moments of deep beauty.

God truly does bring beauty from ashes.

~ Blessings, Bronte