“Brokenness is the only pathway to produce powerful Godly men and women.”- Lon Solomon
There are so many great things happened in November to me! I turned 24, which is considered to be a significant year in Chinese culture as it is a multiple of 12. I went on a vacation to Chicago with my family and had friendship reunions. Early on this month, my car had a breakdown because my battery ran out. God brought different people to rescue me in that cold night and I experienced what is so-called “love one another in God’s family”. Out of many great things happened in this month, I’m particularly thankful for the book called “Brokenness” written by Lon Solomon.
It stuck out to me that the author asserts: “Brokenness is the only pathway to produce powerful Godly men and women.” I then started to wonder how has brokenness played a role in my life to shape me into a person that God wants. One example came into my mind is the very first car accident I had about three years ago. It was on New Year’s Day, I was driving to church with my sister. I still had not put my faith in Jesus by that time yet. I was in a rush and did not pay attention to a stop sign. I ran over it and then the air bags popped out to protect both of us. Luckily, my sister and I did not get hurt but my brand new car was so crushed that I had to let it go.
I had so much fear of being punished, confusion about God, and anger at that time. Thankfully, a while after the accident, God began to work miraculously in me. I started to see how fragile and powerless I actually was in front of God. If God wants to take away my life, He could have done that in a second. I could have resulted a even worse tragedy, if the other car had someone sitting on a passenger seat… I remembered running out of the car to hug my sister tightly and saying “sorry” to her, I could have lost her!
God taught me a serious lesson using this car accident. Because I was holding too much pride about my driving skills and self-reliance, I was so immature to drive carelessly. Behind the pride of my driving skills, was a prideful sinful nature that forces me to turn away from God for my own way.
I was then compelled, by this accident, to admit my brokenness in front of God. I started to realize my weaknesses in front of Almighty God, and the sinful nature, believing that I could do anything without God. Yet, the truth is without God, I could do nothing, not even walk or breathe. It is from this accident that I realize how much I am in need of God for protection, for strength, and for salvation!
Later on that year, I decided to confess my sins and to receive the gift of salvation. I am thankful that God used this incident to discipline me. It seems to be a disaster to lose a car, but a significantly valuable lesson that I learnt. Ever since that, I learnt to fear God. One question I ask myself when interacting with people becomes “how would Jesus treat them”? I thank God for revealing my physical and spiritual brokennesses to me and He is still transforming me!