By: Kim Scott
Lent is all about hope and healing and readying ourselves for the love that God invites us to step into.
In love, Jesus offers his life for us on the cross. What more assurance do we need of his love for us?
He sees us - he waits for us in our secret shack.
He wants to heal our hurts and fill our soul with hope. If we allow it, this can be the journey through Lent to Easter.
During this journey, take time to explore what keeps you from fully trusting and loving the Lord…what holds you back? Step into your shack - trust that God is there waiting for you.
Embrace what needs to be healed…attach your heart to the hope that God binds up the wounds of the brokenhearted and wants you to be free to love and be loved.
Lay down past unhealed hurts, lay down any regrets or disappointments, lay down unmet expectations that haunt you.
This is what the cross is for. To lay down our burdens.
They will always be a part of your soul but you don’t have to carry them.
Here’s the gift…the gift of hope -
when we step into and face whatever it is that burdens us, that has broken us, God shows us a way to use this brokenness to feed and nourish and heal others.
There is a Japanese art form that beautifully depicts this idea. It’s called kintsugi.
When a vase or a bowl or anything ceramic breaks, instead of throwing it away, the artist gathers up all the broken pieces and glues them back together. To fuse the object back together, they use gold dust with the glue.
It almost honors the cracks. The cracks are celebrated as part of the object’s story.
The same logic can be applied to us - when we are broken either by our own doing or someone else’s, instead of hiding the brokenness, we can accentuate and use it to help others heal.
Remember as Nouwen says, we are “wounded healers.” When I learned of this art form, I bought a heart necklace that depicts kintsugi.
For me, it is a reminder that through my brokenness, I found strength. I found healing.
As we step into and embrace our woundedness, we begin the journey of hope. Hope is strengthened.
We were broken to be given as bread for the world.
As we keep healing, we keep healing…as we keep healing ourselves, we keep healing others. If we believe this, if we embrace this, if we live this - what an empowered message of hope we will become. Amen.
Empower Hope and Healing.
Kim