What if Your Brokenness Can Bring New Growth in Others? — Carol McLeod Ministries

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 2 Corinthians 4:7-9 (NLT)

Boom! Crack! I wonder if the neighbors heard that, I thought to myself as I stared at the pile of broken pottery pieces on the ground. 

That Saturday morning, my backyard had become an experiment ground. My mission was to purposefully break a clay pot and glue the pieces back together. Little did I know that God was about to expand my view on brokenness.

The idea was birthed from a book where a woman shared her testimony and held up a clay pot, broken and glued back together for the audience to see. She proposed that the light shining through the cracks was stunning.  

I never thought that something broken could be beautiful, I pondered. Captivated by that lovely illustration of light glistening its way through the cracks in her clay pot, I just knew I needed to discover how that looked and felt for myself.

Broken. I could relate to that. The shattered dreams and smashed hopes of my own life resembled those broken pieces. The first time my heart cracked like a clay pot, I was staring at the ultrasound monitor and could not finding my baby’s heartbeat. I felt crushed. Destroyed. The next time my heart was shattered into a million pieces was my devastating divorce. I felt damaged. Wrecked. The most recent heartbreak was holding my dearest friend’s hand through chemotherapy but still losing her to cancer only four months later. I felt fractured. Ruined.

Each moment had left me splintered and beaten down by the weight of my grief. How can I piece the fragments back together? I honestly was not sure, but after hearing about the women’s story, I was hopeful. Perhaps there was a purpose to my brokenness. 

Maybe you are wondering the same thing. 

What if God’s light shines the brightest through our cracks and broken places?  

You see, a pot with no cracks or chips does not allow much light through it. However, if a pot has many of those broken places but still shines brightly for Jesus despite them, then that is a beautiful thing.  

Could our brokenness actually help us be a stronger light?  

Friend, there is something powerful about doing something physically that symbolizes how you feel emotionally. I discovered this truth when I broke my own piece of pottery that weekend in my backyard. What God revealed to me unleashed hope. 

Maybe you don’t see hope as you stare at another negative pregnancy test. Perhaps you don’t see hope as you are raising your kids as a single parent. It could be that you don’t see hope as you drive to another chemo appointment. 

Hope is an important ingredient as we look at our broken pieces. 

After breaking the clay pot against the concrete flowerbed, it was time to piece together the fragments. I plugged in my hot glue gun and put the remains of the pottery back together. As I placed a candle inside the reassembled pot, I was surprised by what I saw. 

The beams of light were shining radiantly through the slivers and cracks. It was breathtaking! That night, I took many pictures to remind me that God can take my broken pieces and turn them into something beautiful—and that He will do the same for you.

Just imagine others seeing God’s light shine brightly through the cracks and grief in your life! That light is appealing, and it will invite them to be vulnerable and share their own broken stories.

There is beauty in brokenness. 

Have you ever heard of kintsugi? It is a Japanese art where the artist intentionally uses broken pieces of pottery. Instead of trying to hide their brokenness, the artist highlights each crack with a gold lacquer, making the pot more valuable with each fracture. After all the holes have been redeemed, the finished product is a treasure.

The kintsugi clay pot is priceless, not in spite of its cracks but because of them.  

So are you! God takes your broken heart and pieces it back together. He takes your broken story and turns it into a redemption story. Do you want God to bring beauty to your ashes? Your broken story is a gift to share with others. 

Let me share a story with you about two pots.

Each day, a woman used two pots to collect water from a stream. As she walked back to her house, the first pot, perfect in every way, felt proud that it never leaked a drop of water. The second pot, with its multiple cracks and broken places, felt ashamed from always losing more than half of the water along the path. No matter how hard it tried, it felt like it never measured up to the other pot. 

One day, the pots overheard the woman talking with her neighbor. She asked, “What’s your secret for the lovely flowers along the path?” The woman shared, “I sprinkled seeds knowing one of my pots is broken. Each day, the cracked pot spills water and helps these seeds grow. What was once a barren path is now filled with gorgeous flowers.”

I love that the second pot, with all its cracks and breaks, is the one that helps others grow. I think we believe just the opposite. We feel we need to have it all together to help someone else. But what if our hurt and pain is the very thing that qualifies us? 

Friend, you will connect with others more in your struggles than you ever could with your successes.

I used to think that our brokenness disqualified us, but now I know it is the very ingredient God uses to help another hurting heart. I love that God wants to use us because of our brokenness, not in spite of it.

Have you ever thought of your brokenness as a gift? Have you ever considered that God can take your brokenness and bring new growth in others from it? 

Replace your fear that your brokenness disqualifies you with the truth that your brokenness qualifies you even more.

I am so thankful for the truth God revealed to me about brokenness that weekend. God wants to shine the brightest through our broken places. But are you willing to give Him your broken pieces? Allow God to take them and turn them into something wonderful. Your trials can be your testimony.

Remember, your brokenness does not have to define you. In God’s hands, it can refine you into something stronger and more beautiful than ever before.

Note: This is an excerpt from Jodi’s book-- Depth: Growing Through Heartbreak to Strength