The words me too

It has been said that at the start of every friendship are the words me too.”- Matt Bays

“Friendship . . . is born at the moment when one man says to another, ‘What!  You too?  I thought that no one but myself . . .”- C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves

In Chapter 9 (“Me Too- You Are Not Alone”) of Finding God in the Ruins, Matt Bays notes that the word glory often is defined as “the silent existence” or “the unspoken manifestation of God.”  The Greek word for glory, doxa, is used to convey God’s intrinsic worth or core value.  Pastor Bays applies this to our brokenness:

“So not only is the glory of God revealed in our brokenness, in the ruins of our lives, in those things we can’t figure out, get right, or seem to overcome, but his core value is at its absolute highest when we are at our absolute lowest.  The silent existence of God is alive in my brokenness, when his power is not simply present but ‘made perfect.’ ”

What, Matt asks, if God is calling us to something and for something that He needs us to make right in the world?  God’s glory, made perfect in our weakness, could bring what is dead in others back to life.  There still may be unanswered questions, but Matt doesn’t think we really are looking for answers anyway:

“I think we’re looking for grace- enough so we can manage the pain.  And answers are not grace; they’re just information.  Empathy is grace.  Company is grace.  ‘Me too.’ That’s grace.”

Today’s question (from Matt): When you consider C. S. Lewis’ quote, how are you this kind of person to people?  What are some ways you could take it even further?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Drawn into His love”

The words me too

Flaws are openings

“And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.”- Jeremiah 18:4

Kyle Idleman concludes Chapter 1 of The End of Me with the encouragement that God loves to make the broken beautiful.  William MacDonald (Lord, Break Me) points out that broken things lose their value in the physical world.  However, the reverse is true in the spiritual world.  Broken things are precious, revealing God’s beauty and power.  Flaws are openings (italics author’s).

Pastor Idleman loves Jeremiah’s beautiful image of God sitting at the potter’s wheel and refusing to toss a flawed piece of pottery.  One piece of clay has endless possibilities.  Kintsugi is a ceramic restoration process developed in Japan in the 1500s.  In the process of sealing the broken ceramic pieces together, the cracks are highlighted and traced over in gold.  They are not hidden.

More often than not, the restored Kintsugi pottery turns out to be more valuable than the original, unbroken piece.  The question for us is whether or not we are willing to let our cracks show.  Kyle concludes:

“It’s only after we’ve been made whole that we are ready to fulfill our purpose and be used by God.  That’s the inside-out way of Jesus- in you, then through you.”

Today’s question: How has God’s beauty and power been revealed through your brokenness?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Living the dream”

Flaws are openings

Embrace the paradox

In Chapter 1 of The End of Me, Kyle Idleman asserts the plain truth is “as much as we fight it, we long for the freedom to admit we’re broken.”  We don’t, however, consciously realize our need to do it.  While that lack of realization is true for each of us, it’s most certainly true for those people who least realize it.

Sociologist Brene Brown writes that all of us are one step away from being one of “those people”:

“. . . ‘those people’- the ones we don’t trust, the ones we pity, the ones we don’t let our children play with, the ones bad things happen to, the ones we don’t want living next door.”

Pastor Idleman adds that most of us know deep down we’ve got a lot of pieces that never seem to get mended, yet we go to great lengths to avoid honestly embracing of our condition.  He states we’ve become the masters of illusion, experts at covering pain, and partakers of loneliness.

In our culture, brokenness is a  hard sell.  Few, if any, people would pay to attend a seminar helping them to experience brokenness.  Kyle concludes:

“Brokenness . . . is, however, the one hope Jesus holds out for us, the inside-out, upside-down way that is somehow the only path that ultimately is right side up.  Embrace the paradox: brokenness is the way to wholeness.”

Today’s question: How have you been able to embrace the paradox that brokenness is the way to wholeness?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Flaws are openings”

 

Embrace the paradox

A trick question

“It’s not a question of being broken; it’s a question of brokenness.”- Kyle Idleman

Kyle Idleman continues his discuss of “A Sinful Woman Forgiven” (Luke 7:36-50) with what he considers to be the real question we should struggle with after reading Luke’s account: Who do you want to be most like, Simon or the sinful woman?

It’s a trick question.  Pastor Idleman states that most of us, especially those who have been Christians for a long time, want to be both.  Phrased differently, we want to be made whole without having to be broken (author’s emphasis).  We want to learn our lesson sans significant sacrifice.  There’s only one problem with that strategy- all of us are broken.

In Luke 7, it’s painfully obvious the woman is broken.  But what about Simon?  Kyle states Simon had memorized the entire Old Testament by age fifteen and could recite nearly three hundred Messianic prophecies.  Yet he treats Jesus as an unwanted dinner guest.

Simon isn’t just broken, he is really broken.  Pastor Idleman defines “really broken” as “not knowing you’re broken.”  Romans 3:23 tells us in no uncertain terms, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  The real question, Kyle notes, is whether or not we can own up to it.

Today’s question: Following your ministry downsizing or vocation loss, how have you avoided the temptation to find the easy way out?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Embrace the paradox”

A trick question