Broken Pieces

The longer you have lived on this earth, and I think everyone will agree with me on this, chances are you've been hurt, disappointed, been betrayed by someone, broken someone's trust and someone else broke yours, been heartbroken by something or someone at least once. Am I right?

Last Sunday in church, we had a guest speaker, well, not really a guest speaker, but more like family who's visiting us as he lives elsewhere. :-) He comes to visit our church every year, and every time he comes, he shares a burning message. And until now it is still ringing in my ears and I just want to share how I received it.

You see, as child, he was left by his own mother on a roadside and abandoned him. His mom was an alcoholic. He was on that roadside for three days, when an ordinary Christian passed him by. That man came from the hospital, caring for his own son who was severely sick. Having compassion on the boy he was abandoned by his mother, he borrowed $17 dollars because he did not have any money himself, so that he could send the boy to a bible summer camp. In that summer camp, the abandoned boy gave himself t Jesus, and the rest is history. These days, he is already 71 years old, but he hasn't stopped helping needy children like he was once.

He shared the story about visiting the Titanic museum in Belfast, Ireland, where the ship was originally built. We all know about the story of Titanic, right? It was the 'best' cruise ship at the time, and some people, in praise of it, said that even God could not sink it. Guess what? It sank- and it sank magnificently, it I may use that word, killing so many people in the process, only leaving behind a few survivors.

While going through the displays at the museum, he said he was caught by the story of one of the survivors.

This survivor said that somehow he found a broken piece of the ship and he hung on to it, and then he desperately swam towards the people, checking to see if there was anyone alive, and he was able to save nine people in all after saving himself.

Now ask yourself, if you were in the same situation as he was, would you have done the same? Most of us would probably answer no, I would have just clung to that piece for dear life, thanking God for saving me. And in honest truth, that man didn't have to do anything. He did not have the responsibility to reach out and save anyone at all. After all, he just escaped certain death himself! At that time he did not know when the rescuers would arrive and he might freeze to death as well.

Or what if, in the process of saving someone, the person he's trying to save was losing it and ends up pulling him down back to the water and he drowns in the end? It's possible, right? But this man, having come from a near death experience, did the unconventional. He reached out to others, saving as many people as he could, and more people survived because of what he did. I believe he was shivering in the freezing temperatures, but he moved from one person to another, checking for signs of life. That is selflessness.

You see, when we are broken, when we are hurt, when we get disappointed, when someone betrays us, somehow, our drive, our motivation to do something good stops. We have questions like, what if I get disappointed again? What if, after I give this person my trust, will get broken again? 

After we are broken, we think we are no longer qualified to do anything anymore, and the devil will try to do his best to use our brokenness as the thing that immobilizes us to do anything for God or for somebody else. It is, most of the time, easier to quit and make excuses.

But you see, we can use our brokenness as a catalyst for doing change. We can deal with the brokenness knowing that Jesus was broken for us first. How can I say that? Remember when He was praying at the Garden of Gethsemane? He was praying until sweat of blood came out of his body. Why? Because He was having an inner battle- He wanted to do the will of His Father, but at the same time He did not want to go to the cross. But after the inner battle, His divinity won, and He finally declared, 'not my will,but yours be done'. You can read this passage in the book of Matthew 26 verses starting from verse 36.

Jesus Christ was broken for us first, so that our brokenness can be our strength. One man, on a broken piece, saved nine people from the Titanic. What's stopping us? It has been a year to this month, since I started sponsoring a child through Metroworld Child ministries. It is not something grand that I am doing, nor is it world changing. But I believe that this very little thing I am doing is the same as that man who reached out to an abandoned boy on the road side.

I do not know what kind of impact I will be making in the life and family of that little girl I am helping, but I do pray, that somehow, that action, will be a catalyst for change in her life, and who knows, she will also do that in the future, because, someone, a complete stranger, reached out her hand and helped out. We all have our circle of influence. Let us reach out to those nearest us. Will you?