Last night I was talking to a friend (shout out to my boy Kenny!!) and I was finally able to articulate something I’ve been wanting to blog about for a couple weeks. So praise because I’m finally going to be able to share it with all of you, too!
There’s a song I love and one of the lines is “fragments of brokenness salvaged by the art of grace” – it just keeps playing over and over in my mind.
Grace. Grace is an art. Grace is a gift.
A really freaking crazy gift. And God is the Crafter of it all.
He is taking all my broken little pieces and making something beautiful.
I tend to be blinded to the beauty most of the time, but there are moments where I get a glimpse into what He’s crafting and it wrecks me.
When I was younger, I helped my mom refinish an old wooden dresser. I remember thinking how ugly that stupid dresser was. “Why don’t we just buy a new dresser? This thing can’t be transformed into something usable.” But we stripped it layer by layer, sanded it down, and stained it. Somewhere in the process (it was a looooong process), I started seeing the potential, and eventually, I saw how beautiful it was when it was complete.
As believers we are a work in progress. God is stripping away the old, sanding us down to remove any imperfections, and making us into something new and beautiful. Not only that, but He promises to bring His work to completion. {For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6}
The art of grace – a crazy, undeserved gift – God loving us so much that He won’t leave us as we presently are.
We tend to limit His love so much because the “love” that surrounds us is what we are conditioned by this world to see as the real thing, when real Love couldn’t be farther from what the world distorts it to be.
What’s crazier is that as God is crafting us into something beautiful, He also uses us – broken, messy, undeserving people – to bring hope and restoration and to give the world a glimpse of what Love really looks like.
I’m always so shocked that God uses me to speak into the lives of others. I’m just sharing my heart, so it’s encouraging to see that lining up with Christ’s heart and His knowledge of what people need to hear. It literally blows my mind to think that my heart is becoming more like the heart of Christ…like what do I even do with that?! (Probably cry because it’s so overwhelming – don’t judge! haha)
Well, that’s really all I’ve got for you right now. I’m not great at blog endings – which looking at the words above makes sense because I’m still a work in progress. It doesn’t just end when I hit save on my post, and I think that’s pretty sweet!
I pray someone finds encouragement in this. Feel free to leave me some feedback! I would love to hear from you!
Fundraising update – A HUGE CELEBRATORY HEART FELT THANKS to all of you who have supported me so far!! I’ve reached my first goal of $1000! I’m so excited and overwhelmed by God’s provision through His people!
My next deadline is $3,500 due June 12, 2015. (I need to meet this deadline in order to be able to go to training camp!)
I ask that you would prayerfully consider partnering with me by a one time or monthly donation! You can do so by clicking the “Support Me!” button at the top of the page. (If you would like to donate in a different way, please contact me directly!)
Please feel free to contact me at any time! I would love to connect with you and buy you a cup of coffee!
