Turning Brokenness Into Usefulness

This past Sunday morning I had the privilege to preach another “Walking Through Grief Sunday”, and as I often do when asked to speak during the Sunday School time, I spoke from the book of Job. Following the lesson, the pastor pointed out something interesting from Job 2:8 where the Bible says, “And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.” Job 2:8.
 
Job, once the wealthiest man in the land, is now sitting on the ground, covered in sores, scraping his skin with a broken piece of pottery, and the only comfort he could find came from something shattered. That thought, “the only comfort he could find came from something shattered” stuck in my mind, and for most of the five hour drive home was something I gave a lot of thought to — turning brokenness into usefulness. We often think our brokenness is the end because what could God possible do with the fragments of our broken life? Our sorrow, our failures, our disappointments, our regrets, our wounds. They can either become instruments of bitterness or instruments of healing. Job didn’t have anyone cheering him on. His friends didn’t help. His wife didn’t help. His situation didn’t change for a long time. All he had was a piece of pottery that had once been whole, once had purpose, once had beauty, and now it was broken. And yet, that was the very thing God used in the moment to bring relief.

Could it be that the parts of your story you’re most ashamed of carry the very message someone else is praying to hear? Maybe the tears you cried in private are going to water the soil of someone else’s restoration. Maybe the pain you thought would destroy you is going to be the very testimony that sets someone else free. We don’t have to hide our ashes. Jesus isn’t afraid of them. He came into the world, not to celebrate the strong, but to bind up the brokenhearted (Isaiah 61:1). He is near to those who have a broken heart (Psalm 34:18). Your pieces are safe with Him.

So sit in the ashes if you must. Cry there. Pray there. Wait there. But don’t despise the broken piece of pottery in your hand. Don’t throw away the very thing God might use to bring healing to others. Your brokenness does not disqualify you. It prepares you. Someone is going to be healed because you survived what tried to break you. Let God use what’s shattered because there is a ministry in your scars. There is a testimony in your pain. There is purpose in your ashes.
 
And remember friend, God isn’t done writing the story yet.