This might be a random thing to ask, but does else ever think it would be so much easier to make God’s love visible if we weren’t human? As in, if we weren’t frail and limited and broken and weak? Wouldn’t it be so much easier if we were perfectly aligned with God’s heart and purposes in the world so that his love just flowed through us completely unobstructed – shining for the world to see?
Wouldn’t it?!
Well, in his sovereignty, that’s not how our God has set this whole thing up. For some reason, he chooses to take us broken, fractured people to make his love visible.
2 Corinthians 4:7 says, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
In other words, it is through our brokenness that we make God’s love visible! As much as we might try, and as much as we might conceal and perfect and control and smooth out our appearances, we are broken vessels. We are fractured jars of clay. And that’s the way God has chosen to work. He places his love within us, and shines for the world to see his love through the cracks of our brokenness. He shines through the cracks in our lives, our hearts, our relationships, our bodies, our stories and our minds. He takes our weaknesses and uses them to display his strength.
But here’s the problem. When we try to perfect and control and smooth over our rough edges – what happens to the visibility of God’s love? Can it be seen?
I think sometimes out of fear and pride we manage the way we present in the world. We control, we perfect, we smile with perfect teeth and invite people into perfect homes and take perfect photos for a perfectly curated Facebook profile. We cover over the cracks in our lives that God uses to display his love.
Let me ask you. Where is God in a perfectly curated life? How does hiding your weaknesses make God’s love visible?
And let me also ask, where is the room for following the Spirit when we live like that? How do we live in step with him? How do we live authentically? How do we step out into the unknown or a leap of faith if we don’t know it will end perfectly? If we can’t curate the results? Walking in the Spirit is absolutely key to making his love visible because you can’t walk in the Spirit without living vulnerable and authentically.
I want to suggest that the key to making his love visible is to choose to be both available and vulnerable to both God and others. It’s both that simple and that challenging. To be vulnerable to God and others is to accept our sin and our brokenness, to accept that we have cracks, and to be willing for him to shine through us. Without this how can we make his love visible?
And, unable to be separated from our relationship with God, to be vulnerable to others means allowing them to see our humanity, our frailness – for how can they see the love of God in us if they cannot see the cracks it shines through? To be available to others is to get off our own agendas of curated perfection, to live interruptibly, to have our eyes open to the movements of the Spirit in those around us, and to choose to engage with him.
Will you have the courage to make his love visible today by accepting your brokenness and allowing his light to shine through you?