So here this man is having to, not only climb down the rock with a broken flip but also drive a motorbike 50 km back to home. Luckily, the man fixed things for a living. So he sat down and looked at the flip-flop. Examining it and thinking of a way to fix it, He tried everything and nothing worked. So he thought; I am in Indonesia everyone wears flip-flops, let me go check the store near me. What he forgot is, he has bigger feet than everyone, I mean everyone in this country. They gave him the biggest size they had which he couldn’t even put his foot in. He asked “where can I find some my size?” and the store owner answered, “a market 55 km away.” So the man walked down to his motorbike and waited for the rest of the group with him. He practiced putting his foot down heal first on his broken flop so he didn’t destroy his foot whenever he had to stop the motorbike.
Then his friend came down from the hill and told him he had an idea to fix the sandal. So he grabbed a key, punched a hole in the flip-flop where the strap broke from. Then he put one strap through with the help of the key, and made another hole to put the other strap through. He then tied both the straps together and the sandal was good as new.
This man would have never thought of breaking and putting an additional hole in his flip-flop to fix it. Now let me make this connection. I think we as Christians realize that something is wrong with us and God wants to fix these problems. We think it’s supposed to be this easy process and He will just fix our imperfections. We think the work of God in our life is always happy, fun, growing times. I personally came to the realization that I am numb or paralyzed. I don’t have the feelings I think I should. I want to feel the pain other people feel and hurt for them but for some reason, I am numb to it. I have put this steel box around my heart. It might have started as self-defense so I don’t feel the hurt when people make fun of me. Now it’s something way more. I feel like I can’t empathize or have compassion etc. I feel like I need to get rid of my “steel box”. I feel like I’m called to do it but I know it is going to hurt. The holes in my life will be exposed because I am broken and in order to work right, those holes need to be pushed through so I can function how God has intended me to.
I want to encourage you to let God break you. Let him set a fire in your soul. There is nothing pleasant about a fire, it will hurt but fire purifies, so let it burn in your soul. After a forest fire happens, an even more beautiful forest grows out of the ashes. Even though it takes time, it turns into a better thing than before. I also just want to bring up the life of Jesus. If you don’t think God breaks people to make them whole, just look at Jesus. Jesus was beaten, whipped, nailed to a cross, and crucified, to make things right and to make this love story between us and God work.
Hope you enjoyed,
Lucas Hultgren
