There are parts of me I don’t want you to see.

The rough edges, dents and stuck-back-together bits that don’t quite fit.

We’re all broken.

But it is in the story of God picking up the pieces of your life and putting them back together again that breathtaking beauty is found.

Kintsugi

There’s a Japanese tradition of mending broken pottery with gold that literally translates as ‘golden joinery’. Kintsugi puts the pieces back together and creates something even more beautiful than before, highlighting the joins and turning them into the star attraction.

God formed you out of the dust, with His own two hands and He created you in His image. You are a masterpiece that He paid the greatest price to win back, you are so incredibly precious to your maker.

And yet, O Lord, you are our Father.
We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand.
Isaiah 64:8 (NLT)

Every one of us is broken. Our pieces shatter.

But God picks them up and one by one, puts us back together.

To find the beauty in our brokenness, we need to start embracing our imperfections and owning our story.

The sooner we are brave enough to be authentic and honest with our struggles and our story, the sooner God's kingdom will break out.

1. It’s okay to be weak because our God is strong

Just like a clay jar, we are fragile. Cracks appear under the slightest bit of pressure and it doesn’t take much to break us (just ask my serial-mug-smashing best friend).

It’s okay to be weak.

I wish our culture wasn’t so obsessed with the idea that we have to be strong. You’re not stronger than you think. God doesn’t give battles to the ones tough enough to fight them.

GOD is stronger than you think.

And it’s God who stands with us and gives us the strength to see out the storm.

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
2 Corinthians 4:7 (NLT)

The sooner we stop pretending to have it all together and are brave enough to be authentic and honest with our struggles and our story, the sooner God’s kingdom will break out in our workplace, on school runs and around the dinner table.

Isn’t that beautiful? We don’t have to be perfect because God is. And that life-giving power, the great treasure our Saviour has given us, is yours.

Paul says we should show off our weakness and boast in it, because then we get the chance to point beyond ourselves and say, “It’s all because of Him.”

If God’s power is made perfect in my weakness, I have got a whole lot of boasting to do!

2. it’s your story that points to jesus

Owning your story, flaws and all, is one of the greatest things you can do for the kingdom of God.

Your story is beautiful. It makes you who you are and you shouldn’t be afraid to show off how God has shaped you and grown you through seasons of struggle.

I’ve heard many testimonies that end with someone getting saved. But the real work starts when you submit your heart to the Spirit and let Him get down to business joining those broken parts of you back together.

The scars you bear are precious reminders of victories that Jesus has won in your life.

You are a work in progress, who is made beautiful by the good works that God has done, and is continuing to do, in you.

Your living testimony that no-one is too broken for Jesus points beyond you, to the one who makes all things new.

Next time you hear that pesky inner critic try to pull holes in your imperfections, command it to be silent.

Replace the negative thought with glorious truth. ‘Look at what Jesus has done in me so far! Look where He has promised He will take me!”

Take that, inner critic!

3. It’s up to us how we get put back together again

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty shocking at DIY. Generally my quick fixes include plenty of Polyfiller and hanging a picture over the mess.

Are you going to make a hack job of trying to patch up your own life with self-help books, new age spirituality or just plain old avoidance tactics?

Or are you going to step into your identity as a handmade, one-of-a-kind masterpiece shaped by the author of creation?

For God to put us back together, we have to hand over the pieces to Him.

Accepting that we can’t fix ourselves isn’t easy, especially in a culture persistently trying to sell us ways to solve our problems and ‘inspire’ us to create our own destiny.

It’s time to hand over control.

I had to reach rock bottom before I finally accepted I needed God to save me. My life is an incredible testimony to how Jesus came down to me and slowly rebuilt what was broken, into something even more beautiful.

God made my life complete when I placed all the pieces before him.
Psalm 18:20 (MSG)

I really don’t want you to have to go through what I did to make that decision.

You might have made it before, but slowly, over time, have been taking back pieces to look after yourself.

God doesn’t need your help.

He can handle you. All of you.

Can you be brave enough to give Him all the pieces of your life and allow Him to put them back together in the way that He sees fit?