How to live on purpose despite brokenness

Have you ever tried to drink through a straw that was damaged?

Your long-awaited patience to sip that ice cold Pepsi (that’s right, I may live in the land of Coke, but I’m a Pepsi gal all.the.way.) on a hot summer day was thwarted when you realize your straw has a crack, rendering it useless!

I’ve realized that when my life feels even the slightest bit broken, I wanna shout, “Do over!”

Sooner than learn to live with or heal from the scattered pieces of my emotional brokenness, hurt or unplanned curve balls cluttering my way, I want to jump ship and start over.

You too?

When life illuminates your brokenness

If we’re honest with ourselves, we don’t do “broken”:

• We opt for new decor as because we can’t let people see our homes unfinished or worse—lived in!
• We get new phones and devices because it’s been two years and they’re running slower than we want.
• We buy new clothes because while the old one’s aren’t tattered, they certainly aren’t in style (and I deserve this cute little top that’s on sale now).
• And so on and so forth.

I don’t know about you, but I find myself in the habit of replacing items instead of taking the time to restore them.

And isn’t it true that when we allow habits to form in one area of our lives, they almost always show up in another?

How many times have you found yourself fighting against the currant of life only to be on the losing side of it?

Overly busy schedules leave little to no room for down time.

Parenting your tribe of toddler miscreants that have your whole heart, but also drive you straight to counseling and Jesus.

Broken marriages.

Scorned friendships.

Babies in heaven.

Terminal illnesses.

Have you ever wondered if there’s freedom from those feelings of utter exhaustion, brokenness, and hurt?

Our brokenness is welcome here

Our circumstances might not be as easy as replacing a broken straw, but our God is near to our broken hearts.

Even more, because of Christ, our brokenness is always re-purposed for our good and His glory!

But like any good thing, it’s going to cost us something.

It’ll cost us our pride—more specifically, our brokenness will demand a surrender.

Our pains, disappointments, and hurts are like thrashing sea waves, violently pulling us out to the deep.

Our instinct says we should strive and kick as hard as humanly possible in order to make our way back.

But surrender would have us pivot—to relax our frantic efforts and swim to shore on a diagonal, taking the longer path to safety.

Sometimes, the broken pieces of our story distort our reality.

If this didn’t happen, or that would have gone as planned, life wouldn’t be so toilsome!

Or more, we even convince ourselves that we can get “back to normal” if we make a few life tweaks.

But friend, the reality is, if our brokenness drives us to the feet of Christ, our lives will never be the same!

It’s important that we don’t miss this very important truth:

True restoration doesn’t send us back to our old ways, it catapults us forward to live in Christ anew!

Monet Carpenter

Sis, God knows what has to be broken before it can be used. And when we’re broken, he consoles, counsels and catapults into a deeper, more life-giving relationship with Christ that we didn’t know we needed.

Christ purposes our brokenness

Instead of striving to return to the life that once was, I want to challenge us to live whole and purposed lives.

The end result will be different for each and every one of us, but the process is the same:

1. Identify your area(s) of brokenness that need restored
2. Own or acknowledge your hurt, whether it was your fault or someone else’s
3. Heal your hurt through prayer, community, and being in the Word
4. Live whole and unashamed of your testimony for it fashioned you into a courageous, redeemed soul that God will use to encourage others who have endured the same hurt as you

Just like any good and sustaining habit, this is not a quick process free of personal sacrifice.

I want to encourage you to start small. Allow yourself time to fully surrender those areas of your life that ensnare and keep you from living restored and redeemed.

This may look like keeping a prayer journal and asking God to reveal areas of your life that need His attention and healing.

Asking the tribe who surrounds you to pray over you and for you as you embark on a journey of restoration.

Placing boundaries between you and other people, or things [social media, excessive shopping at Target, indulging in one too many sundaes, or anything else that numbs your pain and keeps you from facing areas of your life that need restored].

Above all, we must wholeheartedly believe that Jesus is enough for the task set before us!

Restoring our mind, body, and Spirit is not something that can be accomplished in and of ourselves.

I’m reminded of Psalm 37:5-7a

“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act, making your righteousness shine like the dawn, your justice like the noonday. Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for him.”

We are not responsible for the healing itself, we are only tasked with surrendering, trusting, and waiting for God to do what he does best—making us whole and redeeming us to himself.

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