Golden Repair Sýnishorn

The Reality of Trials

Kintsugi is a Japanese art of taking something broken, like a pottery, and then through a mixture of precious metals — gold, silver or platinum — the pieces are put back together. They repair to such a point that its brokenness becomes part of the beautiful history. The brokenness is not disguised but enhanced, so that the past has more beauty than it did before. In the same way, God takes our brokenness, and preciously repairs it with strength and beauty. We are Kintsugi – a golden repair.

Ernest Hemingway said, “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” All of us can identify with that statement. The truth is that life throws a lot of curves at us that can break us. But, like broken bones that heal stronger than before and scar tissue that is stronger than skin, God can bring strength out of brokenness. This devotional series will look at six things in life that can break us and what God does in that brokenness to bring strength and beauty. 

We first look at the reality of trials in our life. The disciples in their writings and Jesus Himself told us that we were to expect trials. In fact, James, in his letter, writes that he knew all about trials. He calls himself a bondservant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. A bondservant was one who voluntarily served another – a voluntary slave to another. In this case, James is a voluntary slave of God and Jesus. This was no small thing because in the early church the persecution of those following Jesus was severe. To state publicly that you were a slave of Jesus meant that you had a target on your back and that persecution would soon follow. 

James’ audience are Jewish believers who were persecuted for their faith and had relocated to escape. James calls them brothers, a term of their bond in Christ, and a term that expresses the closeness that only comes through facing trials together. 

He then says to count it all joy WHEN you fall into trials. Notice that James does not say IF, but WHEN you encounter various trials. Dr. David Anderson, in his book Triumph Through Trials, states, “Trials are not optional; they are inevitable. Trials are a normal part of God’s process of bringing us to glory.” Jesus told us that we would experience trials and the Apostle Peter calls them “fiery trials.” The reality is that all of the disciples went through trials as did Jesus, and so will we. The question is not if we will experience trials, the question is how will we respond to them? 

To get more from this plan, listen to Strong at the Broken Places podcast series and download the Free Study Guide at gsot.edu/strong.