“How Can God Use this?”

In 2011 a tsunami virtually leveled the Japanese coastal city of Ishinomaki. Sue Takamoto noticed in the debris all the colorful shards of broken pottery. She and her friends collected and washed those shards and created rings and necklaces and earrings from the broken pieces. 

Sue said, “In the rubble of our storm, we all have lots of broken pieces. We can leave them broken. Or—with God’s grace and help—make them into something beautiful. Something called hope.”

Beauty from ashes—that’s the hope promise for those who are hurting.  I’m seeing the ashes of my grief be recycled into the beauty of growth.

And that, in turn, seems to be spilling out into the lives of others. 

God recycles the worst things that have ever happened to us into credentials. Or crud-entials—that qualify us to speak of the difference Jesus makes in life’s deepest valleys and darkest moments.

And people listen. People may not want to hear your message. But they will listen to your scars.

When the worst happens, there is a question that erupts from our wounded heart: “Why, God?”

That question may never be answered this side of eternity. Eternity will answer all our whys. Until we can see the whole tapestry, many of the threads may not be understood.

But there is a question that can be answered here—a question that is the first step in finding meaning in our pain: “How can God use this?”

I guess the bottom line can be summarized pretty simply: If you’re going to get the pain, get the point!

There are questions to ask that can lead us to some of the purpose in the pain.

• What priorities do I need to reevaluate?


• What important things have I been neglecting? What regrets can I learn from here?


• What weakness or sin is this revealing in me?


• What have I done—or not done—that helped bring this on? 


• What is God trying to say to me through this?

A broken heart is an open heart—open in places that may have never been open before. Jesus moves into those places with His transforming love and comfort and healing. Jesus makes beautiful things in people’s lives from broken pieces.

My prayer for you is that you will bring all your broken pieces to Jesus, lay them at His feet, and open your hands to receive what He wants to give you.