BROKENNESS "Going once, going twice, sold for $7,000.00!" The auctioneer said right before his gavel hit the table. Rita Coors was elated. She'd just purchased a porcelain mask, hand painted by John Denver. She couldn't wait to hold it in her hands. As the auctioneer at the 1997 Charity Celebrity Ball for Hospice of Metropolitan Denver handed her the mask, it slipped through her fingers and shattered into a million pieces on the floor. She didn't demand her money back or abandoned the broken piece of art. Instead, Mrs. Coors picked up the pieces and took them home with her. Later she decided to place the broken pieces around a collection of John Denver photographs. She made something beautiful out of the accident. Now she not only had a souvenir from a celebrity, but a story to tell too. Brokenness isn't unusual. Life often slips through our fingers and shatters at our feet. When it does, the best thing we can do is pick up the pieces and make something beautiful out of it, and then be willing to share the story with others who've been shattered too. —Leadership Journal, Winter 2001, p. 40 Illustration by Jim L. Wilson Psalm 51:8-13 KJV "Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee." BROKENNESS
In Larry Crabb's book, Shattered Dreams, he wrote:
"I shift from walking in the way of flesh to walking in the way of the
Spirit when the pain of life destroys my confidence in my ability to make
life work and when it exposes as intolerable, insubordinate arrogance my
demand to feel good. That is the experience of brokenness."
—Shattered Dreams, p. 154, Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Ed Rowell Galatians 5:16 KJV "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." For more information on Shattered Dreams go to, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1578564522/freshministry BROKENNESS
In his book, Future Church, Jim Wilson writes, “Brokenness
isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A farmer doesn’t plant his crop in cement;
rather, he chooses good soil, breaks it up, and then sows the seed. Unbroken
soil does not produce abundant crops, but cultivated soil incubates life.
A butterfly could never flutter in the spring air without breaking its
cocoon and neither could an eaglet emerge without breaking its shell.
Jesus could not feed the four thousand until he broke the bread (Mark 8:1-8). The sinful woman could not pour the costly perfume over Jesus until she broke the alabaster box (Luke 7:37). God could not reconcile Himself to sinful man until he broke down the wall that separated Him from us (Ephesians 2:14). We could never know salvation without Jesus’ broken body (1 Corinthians 11:24). In many ways, we are not useful until we are broken. Psalm 51:17 NLT “The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise. —Future Church, Ministry in a Post-Seeker Age, p. 137-8 Illustration by Jim L. Wilson For more information on Future Church: Ministry in a Post-Seeker Age, go to http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805431349/freshministry or http://www.thefuturechurch.com
BROKENNESS
In his book Intentional Disciplemaking, Ron Bennett
writes, “Brokenness happens when you realize that you are a channel rather
than a source: that you are dependent rather than independent. Brokenness
means performing for an audience of one.”
-- Intentional Disciplemaking, 104. Illustration by Jim L. Wilson Psalm 51:17 NLT “The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise. For more information on Intentional Disciplemaking, go to: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1576832627/freshministry |
