Rediscover the Creator in YouSample

Reflection:

Messy, smelly, broken parts of life can hold hidden treasure that contribute to great fruitfulness and creativity. In agriculture, the fertilizer that enriches and multiplies what is grown is often made from waste, composted items, and other less desireable experiences, which are literally stinky. These ingredients, without the proper system in place, can become toxic muck and dangerous to health. But with the correct tools and support, the nutrients within them can be repurposed to great effect. What seems shameful can become an ingredient for a double portion of fruit that is sweet and joy-causing, parallel to the promises of Isaiah 61:6.

God’s grace is creative in our lives, turning areas of difficulty, mess, and shame into opportunities from which good can unexpectedly spring. Isaiah 61 speaks to the power of Jesus to transform the failure and pain we've known into healing, strength, and even joy. One of God’s greatest strategies is recreate the world around us is to bring restoration and healing to us individually that is so good and transformative that it cannot help but flow out out via what we create in the world. If you're feeling discouraged by pain, loss, or brokenness today, or even your own regrettable choices, take heart. God can develop fertilizer that will support great fruitfulness in your life and community through these areas. Whether experienced due to our own choices or those of others, when we experience healing and strengthening in these places, the opposite of the muck can flow through us to bless others via empathy, compassion, wisdom, and solutions. This reality demonstrates aspects of God's goodness and redemptive plan in the earth that often goes unseen.

The places of greatest failure can be the most profound places of healing. In our weakness, the strength and undeserved grace and love of Jesus shines brightly. We all need and benefit from real, felt experiences of love that we do not deserve. Sometimes God’s kindness to us is to let us get to a place so broken and messy that we get to experience how wildly generous and underserved His grace and love is, that we could never earn or deserve. Receiving love and grace in these places naturally affects and benefits what we're creating in the world, for “those who are forgiven much, love much” (Luke 7:47).

Take encouragement from the story of Peter’s denial and subsequent restoration over a breakfast with Jesus (John 21). His lowest moment became an experience of unconditional love and the foundation on which God built the early church. Today, it still brings hope and encouragement to all of us when we reach such moments. Remember this the next time you find yourself in a low point or being haunted by a past failure. You are not alone, and as Isaiah 61:6 - 7 declares, God wants to bring a double portion, everlasting joy, and rejoicing into your life, instead of shame or disgrace.

As we allow the healing work of Jesus's love and grace to continue in our lives, step by step, we can grow in compassion, wisdom, and even expertise with which we can help others and create new solutions. The redemptive reality of God's gift of creativity and love spark fresh hope for the problems which still just feel messy and broken. This is being experienced every day in millions of recovery meetings around the world, in cancer support groups, in families reconciling after loss, and even in workplaces developing new ways to better bring value to customers. Billions of lives have been impacted by the ministries birthed out of the forgiven sins of Chuck Colson, the world-impacting art fueled by the pain and failures experienced by C.S. Lewis and Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the nation-shifting policies of Abraham Lincoln, whose roots values and empathy were formed through difficulty and hardship.

Our first step in seeing more of this redemptive creativity in our own lives is simply to receive again and afresh the love, forgiveness, goodness, and wisdom of Jesus that transforms. No matter how long or short your faith journey, there is more of His infinite creativity and love to discover.

Activation:

Where can you see this creative, transformational work around you? There are probably areas in your life where you’ve seen God bring comfort, healing, and redemptive possibilities from places of difficulty. If it is hard to see in your life, look for someone near you, or read a favorite Bible story where God brought beauty out of difficulty: Joseph, Mary and Joseph, and Paul are great places to start. Then, take a moment to pray for and thank God in advance for a place in your life where you want to see creative redemption.