The Blessing of Broken Things
39. When the morning dawned, they didn’t recognize the coastline, but they saw a bay with a beach and wondered if they could get to shore by running the ship aground.
40. So they cut off the anchors and left them in the sea. Then they lowered the rudders, raised the foresail, and headed toward shore.
41. But they hit a shoal and ran the ship aground too soon. The bow of the ship stuck fast, while the stern was repeatedly smashed by the force of the waves and began to break apart.
42. The soldiers wanted to kill the prisoners to make sure they didn’t swim ashore and escape.
43. But the commander wanted to spare Paul, so he didn’t let them carry out their plan. Then he ordered all who could swim to jump overboard first and make for land.
44. The others held on to planks or debris from the broken ship. So everyone escaped safely to shore.
Acts 27:39-44
The Reality of Brokenness
Brokenness is something that all of us have had to deal with at some point in our lives. The loss could be related to something as minor as a pencil or it could run quickly to the other end of the spectrum to refer to a broken family. So how do we respond in those moments? There is a tremendous sense of loss. The broken thing no longer works and we are stuck with the fragments or worse yet to try to fix the damage caused by the tragedy. None of us know when life will strike with tremendous force and shatter our fragile lives. None of us can predict a secure future, and that included the Apostle Paul. Yet there was one secure thing that he held on to. He had a secure faith in the Power of the Living God and knew that in spite of the worst tragedy, God does not break or bend.
Our intention in this message is not to mourn the loss of things that broke under pressure. Nor is it my goal to try to fix every fragmented situation. What I discovered in this passage and in other Scriptures is that God can use even the shattered things to minister and to bless us in times of crisis. There are blessings untold that can come from broken things, but we must sift through what we call rubbish in order to find the precious jewels of God’s Grace. Before you write off those shattering experiences as no good nightmares, I would like to challenge you to discover that those tragic moments could have left you with something very valuable. What I’ve discovered is that God never takes away anything without always supplying something for us to hold on to. So, let’s explore the blessings from broken things.
For the Apostle Paul, brokenness played a key role in him embracing God’s redemptive purpose. His plans to stamp out the Church movement was broken by Jesus. God’s light from Heaven had blinded his natural sight in order for him to embrace the Gospel vision. After his conversion, many of his encounters with the Judaizers and others who considered him a heretic and a traitor had caused him great physical suffering. Yet, Paul understood that all things worked together for the good of those who love God and who are loved by God. Being broken had always welcomed opportunities to experience God’s mercy and ultimately, God’s deliverance. Paul understood brokenness from a personal perspective.
Paul also understood that the journey they were taking towards Rome would mean that their ship would be destroyed. The Angel of God had forewarned him that all the souls on-board would be spared, but the ship would be lost. In other words, the vessel that was to get them to their destination would be ruined but their lives would be saved. Isn’t that amazing! Here is something even more amazing. God gave the commanding officer the foresight to notice that there were some onboard that could not swim. God also gave the officer the wisdom to discern that the broken pieces of the ship could be used as emergency floatation devices. What does that tell you about God? It tells us that sometimes God’s rescue message can come from sources that we would otherwise overlook. So, pay attention. This passage also alerts us to the fact that God salvages even the broken things for His Glory. So, be mindful of the pieces that you are tempted to simply throw away as worthless. God can certainly use the broken things.
As this ordeal played out, everyone on board was able to escape to land thanks to the broken pieces of the ship. Yes, the vessel they were travelling in was lost, but God Almighty had spared their lives due to the availability of the fragments of the boat. Let me now share four powerful principles of how broken things can bless your life.
From Broken to Blessed
In order to determine the blessing in your life, you must first assess what is broken and how it got into that condition. Did things shatter into pieces as a result of negligence or even recklessness? In that case, God would expect complete confession. A person cannot get past the debris of failure without first acknowledging personal responsibility for sin. 1 John 1:9 states, if we confess our sin, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Sadly, many do not take that verse to heart and as a result, tend to view confession as a putdown of their character. Confession is really the means by which God resets our life and allows us to have a brand-new start under His direction. That’s how it works.
Let’s say the fragmentation was not your fault, so what happens in that case? In the case of the sailors, they did not cause the storm, but they could have avoided it. They knew that the seasonal storms of the Mediterranean were unsafe. They also knew that caution should always guide the decision-making process especially when other people’s lives are at stake. Why didn’t they heed the warnings? They wanted to make a quick profit. They wanted to beat the odds by taking a gamble. Sound familiar? Over the ages, very little has changed with people and their willingness to take huge risks to turn a quick buck. While the brokenness may not be directly related to our own area, we must ask ourselves if we drifted into those “dangerous predicaments” in hopes of personal gain.
Regardless of how the things ended up broken, does God have a plan and if so, how can we take advantage of it? So, the first priority is to assess what is broken? No, do not call it broken if it simply stopped working. That doesn’t mean its shattered. A heated argument does not mean the marriage is busted. An overdraft on the bank account does not mean you are bankrupt. A headache is not an indication that you have a tumor nor does it mean that your brain can’t function. While many people know how to ask “what is this” they have a hard time grasping the “why.” In conducting a thorough assessment, one is forced to ask why and then evaluate when it started, what is the severity, and also what led up to problem. Of course, the self-assessments are a start, but if you really want to find out quickly how things went awry, ask the Holy Spirit? Simply say, “search me, Lord.”
That is included in the confession. I can guarantee you, that if you are honest with God, He will quickly walk you through the steps for your recovery. Let’s pause for a moment and make a note of the things that you think are shattered in your life. This may be painful, but it is necessary. Why pretend that everything is alright if you are only covering up what is really going on inside of you? Your Gracious God already knows and is waiting on you to come to Him as your Ultimate Physician. As one person put it plainly, “the best doctors in the world cannot treat you until you seek their help.”
The next principle is to realize that broken things still have value. In our throw-away society, there are not only landfills running over with stuff that could have been recycled, but there are also spiritual trash heaps filled with missed opportunities. In the Old Testament, Jeremiah the prophet was led to the potter’s shop where he watched how the potter took a broken piece of clay and made it into a new vessel. The clay looked worthless, but rather than throw it into the trash, the potter formed a different container according to his own choosing. Jeremiah 18:1-4. To say that broken things still have value is one thing, but to say how to bring out that value is something else. Here is how God will lead you in that process. With God all things are possible. That same fragmented object could be restored. That same messed up thing could be reused. Or, that same situation that looks hopeless could be repurposed. Restoration will bring it back to its original position and function. Reused, means its broken but has some more useful life as is. We have old cars that we continue to reuse, because they have not broken down completely. Then God can simply repurpose something. I see that with the commander who noticed that the pieces of the ship no longer made up a ship. He kept looking and noticed that some of the people could not swim, so he repurposed the wreckage of the ship and told each person to grab their “floatation device” and head for shore. The others held on to planks or debris from the broken ship. So everyone escaped safely to shore. It would have been a complete disaster otherwise, for people to remain in a boat that was breaking apart. There you have it. When we recognize that even the shattered experiences of our life have value, we are able to recognize that God uses all things for His Glory and for our good. The key is to ask Him to show us the value of that broken thing.
The third principle is to pray over those fragmented situations. Why is prayer so important, you may ask? Why pray if God already knows that it is broken? It is extremely critical that we understand that prayer is not to inform God but to invite God. If broken things still have value, doesn’t it seem reasonable to ask the Creator for directions. Even if God leads us to dispose of something, we will need His directions so that the things we try to bury today don’t come back to haunt us tomorrow. Thus prayer becomes our Heavenly Plan to deal with broken things. Through prayer, we learn what to say to those broken situations. Through prayer we gain the strength to get out of those broken situations. Through prayer we invite God to walk with us so that we don’t wander from one broken encounter into a whole new episode of the same old thing. Through prayer, God literally and powerfully walks us into a new way of thinking and a new way of living that blesses us and pleases Him. It is not pleasing to God that you struggle through life with a broken heart. It does not bring Him honor that you are always begging for at least one good break out of life. But the Bible says, you don’t have because you don’t ask Him. When you do ask, it is only for you to consume on your lusts and pleasure that led you down that destructive path. So, when you pray, you are actually inviting God to take the lead and show you how to live a good life after being broken in your past life. That is how you move from brokenness to being blessed.
The final principle is the fact that Jesus collects broken things. In my fifty-year spiritual walk, I have discovered that I really had nothing to bring to God but myself. Like Charlotte Elliott, I had to come to God just as I am. Through the Redemption of the Savior, lives are not only turned around, they are put back together. I’m not the only one that has found that redemption. The Psalmist David found it when he wrote in Psalm 51, a broken and a contrite heart You will not despise. Then he asked God, create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. That is redemption. No one can redeem the soul and restore the soul but God. That is the blessing that comes upon every broken life that turns to Jesus for His Redemption. Hallelujah, Jesus picked up the pieces!
So, how do we celebrate brokenness? While we rejoice IN tribulations and broken moments, we still feel the pain. Yet, while we are hurting and struggling to hold it together and even put the pieces together, we can rest assured that God has an ultimate plan that will work out for our good and His Glory. That is how we rejoice. A story was told how of a man who owned a spring. Each morning, he would take two buckets to the spring in order to bring water back to his house. Over time, one of the buckets started leaking so badly that by the time the man got back home, the bucket was only half full. So, the bucket said to the owner, “why do you keep using me?” “Why not just cast me away?” The man simply replied, “I knew you had a leak so I planted flower seeds all along the path to the spring.” “While you were leaking water, you also watered the path that is now full of flowers.” The bucket was satisfied to know that it was still useful. In the same way, God uses our hurts and struggles and even breaks to glorify Him. All along the path of life, our Loving God uses those broken experiences to blossom and bring hope to the lives of others. The Commander of our Faith can still use our broken lives to inspire those in peril to find a life support through our testimony. So, if you are broken, go to your Creator and ask Him to use your life as a blessing in His Name.
James 1:2-4, Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. The end result is that even if things do get broken in the process, God will ultimately put it all back together. Amen.