Broken Glass

In life, everyone likes to pretend on the outside that everything is okay when in reality, it usually isn't.
We go through out day, pasting on fake smiles when inside, we know that we are more like a puzzle with missing puzzle pieces.

This was one of the metaphors that was presented at my church during a sermon recently. Everyone was given a puzzle piece (or in my case, a handful of puzzle pieces) to illustrate the object lesson of hope. To us, it may just look like a simple puzzle piece. But to God, or the person who created the puzzle, it is a part of a much larger picture on the front of the box. All we have to do to gain a better perspective is take a step back and look at the picture on the box to see where the pieces all fit.
We have to ask God to give us perspective on our tiny little puzzle pieces so that we can stop worrying about jamming them together the way we want and start letting God place them where they are supposed to be
---fashioned into a large, beautiful masterpiece.

This morning, towards the beginning of my New Years 21 day fast with my church, I had the unfortunate experience of breaking a wine glass while I was finishing my morning chores. As I grabbed the broom and began sweeping up the pieces, it hit me! I am much like the broken pieces lying there on the floor, scattered everywhere by the impacts of life's ups and downs.
When I look at myself, I tend only to see the pieces, broken beyond all hope of repair. However, God wants to take all of those broken pieces and not only glue them together haphazardly as a distorted image of what I once was, but instead, create a whole new masterpiece even more beautiful than before.

An older Christian movie called "Joshua" explores how life would be if Christ came to Earth in modern time and how he might be received in our day and age. In one of the scenes, one of the female characters also breaks a glass. She even goes on to compare her own life to the broken glass as well. Joshua, the "modern day" Jesus character, says no, that her life can still be beautiful if she would just let it. To prove his point, he later takes all of the broken pieces of glass, melts it down and fashions a brand new glass sculpture out of it so that it is once more something beautiful and worthy of being admired by all.

Anyone can become that new glass sculpture, but only if we surrender to God with all of our being.

During this 21 day fast, I want to be able to pray that as I grow closer to God, my broken, disillusioned life can become new once more in a way well beyond what I ever imagined.

God,
Help me to uncover the pieces of my life that need to be fixed by you. Lead me back on the path of the straight and narrow. Over the past year, I have wandered far away by compromising on things that should not have changed. I know that this process of being molded will hurt as you chisel away and melt me into what you want me to become. I pray that you will give me the grace, guidance and understanding that I will need to see the path that you have set before me.
In Your Holy Name I Pray,
Amen.