The Blessing of Brokenness

This post is about the ways that God has used my broken arm for good. I've noticed it since day one, but I just haven't made the effort to sit down and write about it.

The first and most obvious thing was that my trip to the hospital set up a conversation with someone from work (the man who took me to the hospital), in which we got talking about Church. He grew up in the Church, and used to go to Church, but ever since coming to Santa Barbara a few years ago, he never really bothered finding a new Church. As far as I can tell, he was basically just waiting for someone to invite him to come to Church again. I hardly even had to invite him, he practically did that himself. It makes me wonder how many other people I'm interacting with daily that just need an invite to become involved in a Church.

Second, it reminded me of my weakness and frailty, and hence my desperate need for Jesus. It also forced me to slow down and listen to God more, something I really need to do more often.

Third, and related to number two, God showed me where I place my self worth. I put a lot of my value in my human abilities to do things. Being brought down to a point where I could hardly do anything on my own was very depressing because I suddenly felt worthless. I couldn't drive, type, cook, floss, type, write... Even the simple things that I could do were usually challenging. Through this God reminded me of my true value. I'm not valuable because I can handle life on my own. No, God loves me because I am His, and that's the truth I need to cling to. I'm not sure when I would have realized the extent to which I was doing this if not for injuring myself.

So in short, God brought someone back into the Church, and drew me closer to Himself. The only price I had to back was a little pain and a lot of inconvenience. Not a bad tradeoff when you think about it. All things are worked for the glory of God. Even my broken arm.