The Art of Broken

In the attached image, what do you see? Art? A picture? Study it for a moment and see what comes to mind.  Go ahead.  Take a closer look.  Now, allow me to tell you the story behind the visual.   Almost four years ago, I found this sitting beside a dumpster at the apartments where I then resided.  Something about it made me pick it up and take it back to my own apartment.  I wiped it down, sanitized it, and then studied it.  The tears I had been crying that day stopped just long enough to let myself get lost in the gaze.  Why was I pulled to this image?  It was a fairly unremarkable piece of art (for someone like yours truly, who is most definitely not an art connoisseur), yet something about it spoke to my heart.  If I was shopping in a store where it hung for sale, it's not anything I would ever have purchased. In fact, I might not even have noticed it, but sitting next to the dumpster that day, it looked how my life felt.  It gave imagery to my feelings.  Broken.  Fragmented.  Jagged.  Worse, someone had discarded it as trash to be collected for further disposal, deeming it an object that had lost it's value.  It was as if the artist responsible had captured the pain of my present that day and enclosed it with a cheap frame. The question of that moment was whether the item was garbage...or art.  You decide, but for me, I call it the "art of broken." 

Look closely at the seemingly random and disconnected pieces.  It looks like nothing more than a collection of fragmented nothings..or "chaos" as my husband described it.  And yet...someone took these pieces and made it into a work of art with monetary value.  Alhough I didn't pay for it, someone along the line following it's creation did, and even though the original owner that day threw it out as garbage, God allowed the broken and hurting woman in me to not only discover it, but also redeem it.  The framed fragments now hang on a wall I pass by multiple times daily.  Why?  Because I never want to forget what God has done.  In the Bible, individuals built altars to the Lord (Genesis 12:8) in remembrance of something He did and to praise and worship Him for it all.  For me, this is an altar I hung before the Lord in remembrance of where I was when He shined a light into my pain and gave me a glimpse of where I would one day be.  I knew when I saw it back in June of 2020 that God was showing me how He planned to take my own broken pieces and transform them into art. And He did (1 Thessalonians 5:24).  

Four years later, I can look back on that place of anguish and pain as I stood by a dumpster examining the art someone discarded as trash. I was confused and uncertain, panicked and in despair.  I had lost so much in the short time span of one day, but as I stand in the present moment of January 2024, I see how God fashioned all of those fragments into what I now call the art of 805 Counseling and Consulting, Empowered Living Ministries and Counseling, and a marriage I cherish above all.  The broken piecces of my yesterdays became the art of today and I trust in His hand more now than ever before.  Pain isn't forever, failure isn't final, and loss will always be followed by opportunity if your heart trusts in the One who can usher it in.  

Friend, I don't know what broken places you find yourself in today, but allow me to encourrage you with this story. Like the Apostle Paul through his own hardships, I despaired of even my life that day (2 Corinthians 1:8), but there really is an art to be found in the broken places. Name your pain, your struggle, your despair.  Is it addiction? Grief and loss over a loved one?  An estranged relationship? Job loss?  Accusations? Adultery? Financial hardship? Sickness?  Whatever it is, God has a paintbrush just for you.  Your details in His hand can be so beautifully transformed into something of value, meaning, and purpose.  Be empowered today, not by the successes of your situation, but through the art of your broken.  

"God will bestow on you a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of the spirit of despair." - Isaiah 61:3