Falling Apart
What if I were tell you that your life is meant to fall apart?
1 Peter 3:17 informs us that God in his providence sometimes wills that we suffer. He has his purposes, and ultimately one of the reasons is for his glory. Even when we can’t make sense of it, we can trust this truth.
Understand, I don’t believe God is up in heaven wrecking our lives for amusement. We do a good enough job of that on our own. We were born sinners, and that means we love to be in control of everything. We make plans, we build futures, and, maybe we don’t even realize it, but we desperately fight to be our own god. We all try to hold onto our own worlds when we were never meant to do so.
I believe God has given us a gift called free will. We can choose to hold on tightly to our lives or to surrender control to God. Either way, we all fall at some point because we’re human. Whether you surrender your life to God determines whether you find the beauty and redemption that meets you in every failure.
How do I know this?
Today I can honestly say I’m thankful for every broken bone, scarred up knee, shattered heart, and desperate time. All along they were leading me to find that Jesus was the only one who never falls apart. We are meant to long for perfection, but we aren’t free from failure just yet. The good news of the gospel is that the point at which we fall is precisely where we can find our Savior, the one Psalm 3:3 says lifts our heads.
Where 1 Peter 3:17 says that sometimes God wills that we suffer, 1 Peter 5:10 bookends the suffering with a promise: “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”
Maybe you didn’t suffer a turbulent childhood, and maybe your family wasn’t broken. But since you are a fallen creature in a fallen world, you’ve almost assuredly suffered trauma and maybe even tragedy.
Take an honest look at your past. What are the scars that most embarrass you? Which ones cause you the most pain?
Which ones do you still run from, or which past experience do you wish you could change? God wants to use those moments to write a story of redemption.
Your story is powerful, but your vulnerability is essential in the narrative. Be honest with yourself and others. Share the scars. They’re the testimonies of God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness.
