There it was, shattered into a million pieces on the floor.
Exposed.
Ugly.
Dangerous.
No one wanted to get close or even step into the kitchen with all that glass on the floor. I thought of the time the craftsman had put into designing that mug … shaping it … painting it … finishing it. A formerly beautiful piece of art was now ruined—split into a hundred dreadful pieces.
Sometimes, that’s exactly how I feel. Broken.
God has been molding me and shaping me for years. Then I fall into sin and shatter all that work into a million pieces. And I wonder how God could ever love me. I blow it. I disappoint people—I disappoint myself. I do the things I know I shouldn’t do. I fall into sin. I fail. I say I’ll never do it again, and then I repeat the same mistake. I don’t understand how God could care even the slightest bit about me. I’m not a stellar Christian. In fact, at times I just feel like a big, ugly mess.
But the beautiful thing is that God is in the business of not only LOVING broken people, but also sweeping up all the broken pieces and gluing them back together for His purpose.
All God needs to piece us back together is repentance (1 John 1:9).
How do I know this? Because of King David’s life. I’m so thankful God included David’s story in the Scriptures, because it gives me hope. David wasn’t perfect. He was disobedient to the Lord. He was an adulterer, a murderer, and a negligent father. His sins were publicized not only in the Jerusalem Gazette, but in the Bible, where millions have read about his errors.
In many major life events, David messed up. But God didn’t give up on him; He taught David through the experience.
David repented, God forgave, and David learned. That’s where so many of the psalms came from. The Psalms are not songs of “My life is so perfect. Thank God, for making me a perfect person.”
Instead, his psalms came from a broken spirit—from a knowledge of both failure and victory.
“When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way… I cry to you, O Lord: I say, ‘You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.’ Listen to my cry for I am in desperate need.” (Psalm 142:3, 5-6).
“Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles” (Psalm 103:1-5).
This doesn’t give us the license to sin! By no means! Instead, we pursue holiness because our heart’s desire is to glorify God. But, when we do fail, we shouldn’t let Satan drag us into depression. Instead, our response should be to repent, learn from our mistakes, and dive deeper into a relationship with God.
“I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you” (Isaiah 44:22, ESV).
