“And we know that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” ~ Romans 8:28
There is no better of a way to learn how to be a stronger person than through the experiences of your life…particularly the ones we like to forget. The illustration above speaks to me greatly. You see, the keychain has a piece of a shard of pottery attached to it. This broken piece of pottery could have been easily thrown away since it has failed at its initial purpose of being a part of a vase, yet someone saw something beyond when it became broken. What was once an event that made the clay unusable has now been repurposed and is not contingent on its past nor what caused it to break.
I would love to be one of those people that has the perfect social media profile, having flawless pictures on instagram, writing tweets bragging of my exploits and trips to everywhere, using facebook to portray all the good angles of daily living. The fact of the matter is that no matter how much I want to think myself as having such a perfect life that I must admit that in essence I have been and will continue to be a broken piece of clay. There is not a wardrobe or makeup good enough that I would ever be able to cover every flaw of my body. There is no training for my brain that is good enough to help me to not forget memories. There are not enough public speaking classes I could take that could ever keep me from saying irrational words or speaking negative/doubtful thoughts. There is not enough therapy to keep me from having moments of weakness. Paul even spoke and said that at times we as mankind would sin and fall short of the glory of God. I have failed at many things and am not proud of a lot of parts of my life. In fact, when I use to look back into my past I would grow depressed and not see any value of my future. I was dictating my present state on my past and having trouble realizing my future purpose. Feeling void and lost in my life caused me to lose my will and drive to succeed in life for myself and others I cared for. I praise my God in Heaven today for the amazing transformation of my mind and the newfound peace I received in my darkest hour!
Through all of these experiences God has led me to a great wisdom and knowledge in how to interpret the trials of my life and how to find my purpose. I am no longer defined by my lifestyle that was centered by drug and alcohol abuse; for I am redeemed by Jesus Christ and have purpose to reach out to those that are still bound and help them try to find a greater hope! I am not led to believe that I have to ever return to be that guy anymore. The person i am now has a new purpose for living! Peace and joy follow my footsteps AWAY from the things I was before. I have put all the things from my history behind me and am putting before my my hopes and dreams that by faith I will realize can come!
I had to realize that my failures and mistakes were not to define who I am but are used to help me being repurposed for what I was truly meant to do. The world we live in is a great big vase, trying to piece together all that is good yet not possessing the real glue that holds it all together. And every single time that you think everything is holding together you will find that it does not require very much to break it all to pieces again. Such is the life of a person without the wonderful relationship with God.
Today I reach out to those of you who are trying to refit your life into who or what you used to be. You do not have to be defined by the mistakes of who you were! You can be forgiven for all of your sins and learn from the person you used to be to discover a purpose greater than you could have ever known. We all must learn that through God we can be made perfect (mature) by the forgiveness of our past sins and the learning from our mistakes as we are quickened in these mortal bodies by the Holy Spirit!