Month: August 2015

Driving home from an appointment I heard a song on the radio that brought tears to my eyes–because I could have written it.

The song recalled to my memory my inner feelings after my right femur snapped, casting me to the ground where I waited for at least a half hour in the snow before Randy discovered me.  Emergency surgery followed to place a rod into my bone. The next April I had the same procedure done to my left femur, before it too broke and threw me to the ground to wait for someone to rescue me.

Though I had struggled with physical weakness from MG all my life; knew the pain of surgeries; and had gone through breast cancer treatments of surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation; when I was recovering from broken bones, for the first time in my life I truly felt “broken.”

My body was broken.

I felt more helpless and vulnerable, crumpled, than ever before in my life. It almost felt like the final straw.

The only thing I knew for certain was that God was with me. In my brokenness. In the pain. In the inability to do for myself. In the wheelchair. In the physical therapy.

I did a lot of crying to God. In the midst of my physical, emotional and spiritual agony, he was the One I reached out to … and sang my broken hallelujahs to.

(Click to read and hear the song “Broken Hallelujah” on You Tube at this link. Or read the words at the end of the blog post.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFDAyyFn3WY

 

In my soon to be published book, Brokenness to Beauty, I talk about my life with MG (the disease that causes my weakness) and about my fight with cancer but I don’t mention my broken bones. The way through that struggle was the same as for the other struggles in my life.

And in yours. That’s what I share with you in Brokenness to Beauty: Transforming Your Brokenness into a Beautiful Life: How you can get through those dark, broken times in your life and be able to say “life is beautiful” and show it by your own beautiful life.

What are you struggling with today? Are you singing your broken hallelujahs to our God? Try it. He hears. He is with you. He will take your empty hands and lift you up. And make beauty out of your brokenness.

“Follow” this blog, leave a comment and send me your email to stay in touch to be among the first to get a copy of Brokenness to Beauty when it comes out, to encourage yourself and others.

Words to the song–

Broken Hallelujah

 

I can barely stand right now

Everything is crashing down

And I wonder where You are

 

I try to find the words to pray

I don’t always know what to say

But You’re the one who can hear my heart

 

Even though I don’t know what Your plan is

I know You make beauty from these ashes

 

I’ve seen joy and I’ve seen pain

And on my knees I call Your name

Here’s my broken Hallelujah

With nothing left to hold onto

I raise these empty hands to You

Here’s my broken

Here’s my broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

 

You know the things that have brought me here

You know the story of every tear

‘Cause You’ve been here from the very start

 

Even though I don’t know what Your plan is

I know You make beauty from these ashes

 

I’ve seen joy and I’ve seen pain

And on my knees I call Your name

Here’s my broken Hallelujah

With nothing left to hold onto

I raise these empty hands to You

Here’s my broken

Here’s my broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

 

When all is taken away, don’t let my heart be changed

Let me always sing Hallelujah

When I feel afraid, don’t let my hope be erased

Let me always sing Hallelujah

 

Hallelujah (repeat)

 

(From the new album “Life is Beautiful” by the Afters.)

Every morning I get up, fix my cup of tea and, weather permitting, sit on my patio.  A cup of tea, my Bible and Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest at hand and I’m ready to greet the Lord in the new day. How pleasant, how blessed my life has been. With the psalmist I say to the Lord, “The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance” (Psalm 16:6, ESV).

Those pleasant places I have lived in, however, do not exclude or ignore the places of suffering and difficulty. Indeed, those hard parts of life, that we are all subject to at one time, or many times, serve to heighten our appreciation for that “beautiful inheritance” the psalmist spoke of.

I believe this inheritance is, in a few words, the grace of God. God’s grace has been poured out on us all through Jesus Christ and when we reach for it and grasp it by faith, we begin to know its gracious effect. Even the bitterest trials are made into that which can transform our character, making us stronger through the suffering we endure. Suffering endured with God, not alone. Within that grace of God is a whole world of goodness and kindness, a world apart from anything we’ve ever known outside of God.

Unpack it, explain that world of God’s grace, someone might say. It would take a lifetime. But that is what we have now, isn’t it, however long or short our lives may be? From this moment on we have the exciting expectation that God will give us glimpses—in his Word, in the face of Jesus Christ, in one another, in trials, in joys—what his “immeasurable” grace encompasses. And we carry that into our world.

We show with our lives and tell with our words the immeasurable riches of his grace, beginning to unpack for ourselves and others, to understand, or at least embrace by faith, this thing called the grace of God that can make even the unpleasant, pleasant.

Using my words to embrace and unpack God’s grace is what I’ve been doing in this blog, sharing my heart with you. This is also what I have done in writing the book Brokenness to Beauty: Transforming Your Brokenness into a Beautiful Life, soon to be published.

How have you been using your words to embrace and unpack God’s grace to others? Or are you struggling to grasp God’s grace? Let’s talk. Leave your comments to open the conversation.

Ephesians 1, Romans 5, Romans 8

Nearly one year ago I began blogging my book, Brokenness to Beauty, sharing pieces of it with you as I wrote and re-wrote it, hoping to get it finished and published within a few months. Life doesn’t always cooperate, however. Can I get an “Amen”?! I know I’m not the only one who has been in that place. But with persistence and a lot of Lord, help me’s, I have come to this new place where I can say,

Brokenness to Beauty is in the hands of the publisher!

Yes, the long awaited publishing process has begun. I’m now working with the publisher to get everything finished for publication of the print book and ebook.

In a few months you will have the opportunity to own Brokenness to Beauty: Transforming Your Brokenness into a Beautiful Life, read it for yourself and find the encouragement people have been telling me they get from it. You can then share with your family members and friends, telling them about it so they can read it as well, that they might be strengthened and encouraged on their journey through life. That is the reason I’ve been working on this book for so many years!

Will you help me get the word out?

Go to the comment box and leave your email address (a comment would be nice too) so you can be among the first to know when Brokenness to Beauty hits the market. Be among the first to share the encouragement of Brokenness to Beauty with others so they too can be built up and strengthened in their life walk.

Stay tuned for new developments!