What Critter Are You Based On How You Work?

Have you ever thought you had to bandage up the broken pieces of your life before you could be presentable to God?

As I read through my early copy of Ann Voskamp’s book “The Broken Way – a daring path into the abundant life” my heart soared with hope. She shows how our brokenness can lead to abundance.

As I read through the chapters it made me pause and dig into my own brokenness and the abundance God is bringing from it.

[Tweet “What if we chose to be vulnerable with our brokenness knowing God will use it to deliver others?”]

So much of my youth was nearly swallowed up by brokenness. Numbness had taken over as I tried desperately to escape my own broken pieces as well as the broken ways of those around me.

One particular day we were vaccinating horses in a run down setup. One young horse I was holding went over the top of me and got caught up in a panel. He and the panel came down hard on my leg. I jumped up and dusted myself off and said I was fine as we went back to work. 

In reality, I wasn’t fine.

The panel had cut my knee wide open. As we finished working the ache began to grow. I pulled my pant leg up to see what all the warmth and tingling was about to find my cowboy boot had completely filled with blood and was spilling over the top.

This pretty much described how I dealt with life in general. I was so numb to the actual feelings of any kind –  I didn’t feel anything anymore.

“And this is always the choice: pain demands to be felt – or it will demand you feel nothing at all.”   Ann Voskamp, The Broken Way

I was honestly more scared of the piecing it back together and the pain that would come with it then the actual wound itself.

It was painful to fix my knee, I’m not gonna lie. (They quit counting at 50 stitches.) But to leave it open would have been a slow bleeding out of myself. A gaping wound that at best I tried to ignore and at worst cost me everything.

There’s still a scar there to this day. It still feels different when you touch that spot compared to the other side.

Feeling pain leads to the opening up of us. As we begin to feel again we make room for other feelings we’ve been missing out on. It makes a way for God to work in and through us!

We must feel the pain in order to deal with it.

[Tweet “Not until we are broken open can we be open to other people’s brokenness.”]

That knee, despite its brokenness, serves a purpose. It carried my babies through childhood. It walks along side my husband in marriage. It bends low as I come alongside friends as we kneel to pray. It dances now because I choose to the see the blessing in all of it.

God does great things through the greatly wounded. Ann Voskamp

The brokenness we all fight so hard to hide, has its purpose. We most often find our purpose in our pain. God never wastes a hurt.

[Tweet “God isn’t scared of our brokenness. He’s using it for His glory!”]

We can be confident and full of hope knowing God is able to orchestrate something beautiful when we accept His invitation to live according to His plan.

thebrokenway_timeneverhealswounds

I’m so blessed to be giving one lucky winner a copy of Ann Voskamp’s new book “The Broken Way”! If you’re searching for freedom you don’t want to miss this book.

One randomly drawn winner will be announced next Tuesday, November 15th.

About Ann Voskamp’s new book – The Broken Way

This one’s for the lovers and the sufferers.

This one’s for those whose hopes and dreams and love grew so large it broke their willing hearts.

This one’s for the busted ones who are ready to bust free, the ones ready to break molds, break chains, break measuring sticks, and break all this bad brokenness with good brokenness. You could be one of the Beloved who is broken—and still lets yourself be loved.

You could be one of them, one who believes freedom can be found not only beyond the fear and pain — but actually within it.

Entering is super easy below. Please join in and share the fun!

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I’m sharing this post with several other blogger’s at these Faith Linkups. I encourage you to check them out. If this post resonates with you and feel it would help others please feel free to share. Easy to share buttons below. ~Laura~

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