Each month it seems like we are presented with some unexpected tasks & I have really enjoyed figuring out what we can learn from them. As you read from the title, we got to sharpen colored pencils, like 3 large tupperwares of pencils.
Here is what we learned:
1. Sharpening can hurt. We poked ourselves with the freshly sharpened pencils & even got some blisters. Whether you are being sharpened by your community or the Lord sharpening isn’t always fun, but as “iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend” {Proverbs 27:17}.
If you are familiar with certain aspects of the WorldRace, you might have heard of something we lovingly refer to as feedback. Feedback comes directly from Ephesians 4: 15-16. There are two types of feedback we utilize – constructive & positive. The positive comes pretty easy & serves as a great form of encouragement to one another. Constructive, on the other hand, is challenging.
Before we share words with one another, we seek prayer & guidance from the Holy Spirit. The entire point of constructive feedback is to be humble enough to recognize we each have blind spots {areas in our lives where we are unaware of how we respond or treat others, for example} & to have the courage to call one another higher. As challenging as it can be to receive constructive feedback & to share with others how they are perceived, it is all to make each of us better. Sometimes it hurts & that’s okay.
2. You can be made beautiful – I don’t know if you get the same sense of satisfaction out of looking at things or objects that are symmetrical or strategically organized to be aesthetically pleasing, but I do!
It was cool to look at what we were sharpening & thinking on such a small scale we are making these tiny utensils the most useful & beautiful they can be. Through feedback, humility, & growth, I think God not only desires the same for us, but He also does the same work in our hearts when we let Him. He is in the business of making things beautiful.
3. He makes beautiful things out of the dust. Does a specific Gungar song come to mind? {hey yo youth @ hope!} One of the lines in this song says: “you make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of the dust.” When we were sharpening the colored pencils, we looked down to see actual artwork. It was so pretty! God uses anything & everything to get our attention, He doesn’t let anything go to waste, even colored pencil shavings. Likewise, with the dust & shrapnels of our lives, the Lord uses all of it. All of your pain, all of your weakness, all of your sin – His intention is to grow you & make himself known.
4. We continually need to be sharpened & refined. Remember the sharpening thing I mentioned at the beginning? Well as colored pencils dull with use, we are humans who are frail as breath {Isaiah 2:22} – we continually need to be sharpened & called higher. Sometimes we forget, sometimes what we hear isn’t applied, & sometimes our pride gets in the way.
The Lord stops at nothing & He wants to make us better; truly He wants the best for his children. Our frailty is no match for His love.
5. Each one is individually labeled. I picked up this pencil & I laughed to myself, showing my teammates how this pencil was labeled. I am certain this little girl didn’t want to lose her green one. Just as she labeled her pencil, God labeled each of His children. We are all designed in the image of God, with eternity set in our hearts – we belong to Him, each & every one of us. The Lord sees you & He sees His masterpiece, He tips your chin up to His face & prays that you see how much He loves you.
6. We can look totally fine on the outside, but on the inside we are all just really broken.
I can’t even tell you how many pencils we sharpened, just to wiggle to lead & find that it is loose – or even worse, it comes out in the sharpener & gets stuck! There was no way to tell from the outside which pencils were going to break as we sharpened them. This was the most beautiful example of our human frailty.
From the outside, through an Instagram account, or even through conversation it may seem like our lives are smooth-sailing, shiny, & perfect. As each of you knows, this is far from true. I think our culture does a good job at shaming us for being broken; shaming us for being human. One of the things I love about Jesus is that He sits in our shame with us & He tells us that there is nothing we can do, say, purchase, or break that will make Him want to be with us any less. That is pretty extravagant.
Who knew you could learn so many things from colored pencils?
