Broken Still ChosenSample

God chooses you in your brokenness

Every summer I ride my motorized chair up wooden ramps to speak before thousands of festival goers around the US. That’s not something I could have ever dreamed of as a kid. I sometimes still find it hard to believe as an adult. Yet the fact I’m on stage reveals the truth of an interactive and loving Heavenly Father.

Feeling too broken to be of any use, I struggled with suicidal ideation as a teenager. My favorite place as a little boy was riding on the tractor beside my dad. Farming was my number one love, followed closely by sports. Muscular dystrophy took both of those from me—and with them my purpose. My body is broken, and for years my faith and my spirit were broken as well. I doubted the purpose of being alive.

Imagine my shock at age twenty-three when God called me to start a worldwide ministry and eventually host live outdoor Christian music festivals with some of the top Christian artists in the world. Here’s what I’ve learned: Despite my brokenness, God chose me.

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you” (John 15:16 NIV).

My friend, this truth is for you as well. In whatever broken state you find yourself, God chooses you. He has a plan for you. And nothing outside of His will for you can hold it back. He loves you too much to allow you to stay trapped in the lies or the labels of being “broken and useless.” He will wrap you in His loving arms and reveal His plans for you at just the right time.

In our world today, we deal with a lot of rejection. As Christians, we’re rejected because of our beliefs in absolute truth and our commitment to believing in God, the Creator of the universe. But I’ll latch on to that truth any day of the week. If we were together, I’d ask you to raise your arm and hold up mine too as we praise a loving God who chooses us.

“I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you” (Isaiah 41:9 NIV).