This is one of those weeks that can feel more messy than usual. We gather our people around tables and living rooms and kitchens under the ruse of giving thanks. What ends up taking place amidst the smell of turkey and taste of pumpkin is a smackdown story between high expectations and brokenness.

May the force be with us all.

Saturday night I was privileged to hear a friend share her story before an audience for the first time. She called it “Broken and Remade” and it was holy.

She has done the kind of hard soul work that transforms a person from the inside out. She spoke of years of rising and falling. She described a brokenness that accumulated into such a shattered mess that I have trouble grasping the depth of her pain. But the relentless love of Christ kept pursuing her in the unexpected places and over time she submitted to the only answer. The healing blood of Jesus, gracefully, miraculously, glued the broken pieces of her life slowly back together.

In a display of shame resilience that would’ve awed Brene Brown, she wrapped it up by joyfully proclaiming her place in the kingdom as a daughter. Unashamed.

Her story preached the good news of the gospel better than any sermon I’ve ever heard.

We are all broken in places that need a type of healing beyond our ability. Yet, we convince ourselves that our own DIY concoction of spit and duct tape can MacGyver those pieces back together. We prop the pieces into tidy broken piles expecting them to perform their purpose. We hide the pieces deep and pray nobody discovers how much of a mess we are. But shame will always break us apart again, attempting to deem our stories unworthy, unusable, and unloveable.

As my friend’s story declares, there is only one way to healing.

The only remedy for our brokenness is by trusting God with our pieces and allowing Christ’s blood to transform our mess into a beautiful masterpiece. If we humbly submit to that process, our story becomes a witness to the world, offering hope and redemption and peace.

And the world is dying to know your story.

Oh the mountain where I climbed
The valley where I fell
You were there all along
That’s the story I’ll tell
You brought the pieces together
Made me this storyteller
Now I know it is well, it is well
Morgan Harper Nichols (w/Jamie Grace)