BETTER THAN FIXING A BROKEN BOWL
Stien Marlen 07/01/2025
Sometimes, with all the wisdom mustered – even on a good day – things go wrong. I used to think about the ideas behind the idea of ‘first do no harm’. I worked really hard not to make things worse than they were originally. I was really bad at that. But my fumbling, mumbling, muddying the waters, trying to do what’s right and failing, does not herald the end of the world. It is better than kintsugi (oh, come on, you’ve all heard of the Japanese gold repairs to pottery). I used to think that when God repaired something it was always like that, beautiful, but limping. I’m not so sure it always has to be.
I think I’m talking breath into dry bones, or even the bones that landed on Elisha’s grave. Crazy stories have an importance. There is more repair, new limbs, new life, new health, new peace. We’re settling for second best. “But what about the times God chooses not to heal us!!” (It’s not a question, it’s a protest). Yeah, what about those times? Did you ask and keep on asking? Did you ask him what it should look like? Where you just there with a shopping list for life?
Or did you go, humbly, seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness? Not first your own intentions, plans, desires? Did you wait patiently? Did you trust him that he works out everything for good for those who love him (do you love him) and are called according to his purpose? (And are you called according to his purpose? Are you where and how he wants you to be?)
God says he is love. God says he loves us. In a way that we cannot comprehend, because it is so good, so much sweeter and kinder and more powerful and richer and filled with grace and joy and all those good things. All of them, not just the ones that we’ve mastered, like patience. He says he won’t give us a stone if we ask for bread, nor a snake if we ask for an egg. He’s not Loki. He’s not a trickster. He’s can’t be bought off with sacrifice. He says he’s not interested in our sacrifice. Everything belongs to him anyway. He is, however, loving. He promises us the desire of our hearts. I love the way that he is both going to fulfill us completely and fill our hearts with desire for that things that will bless us.
And more than that, there’s greatness in the waiting. We face these challenges. Challenges of many kinds. And we can consider it pure joy, because he is going to strengthen us through the challenges. We are going to grow and, like a tree growing rings, draw strength and build strength.
And that strength is the thing that God is doing. He wants us to take on the impossible challenges, the ones that come up regardless, not riding headlong into the wind looking for difficulties. That isn’t adventure, that’s foolhardiness. It’s impossible for us, but nothing is impossible with God. I’m not a very wise person. I have to ask God for wisdom constantly. He is going to give me wisdom, because he promises. He is absolutely faithful, so his promises are true. Maybe you don’t know that. They are true. That’s the thing about the waiting. You are waiting for the King of the Universe to say yes. He already loves to bless you. He already knows that challenges with help you grow and build spiritual muscle. In your brain, every time you choose to take on a challenge and go through with it, you build strength for future success.
I know that God wants me to reach out to him to heal the broken heartedness in me. He wants to breathe new life and fullness of life into me. Sometimes there might be cracks that the light shines through, but other times, equally importantly, that chrysalis death leads to the emerging perfect, beautiful, unrecognisable new life. He is making everything new. If you don’t know it, God turns everything to good, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Everything. I am going to try and learn something about that this year.
City on a hill 