Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,
“Because you despise this word
and trust in oppression and perverseness
and rely on them,
therefore this iniquity shall be to you
like a breach in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse,
whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;
and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel
that is smashed so ruthlessly
that among its fragments not a shard is found
with which to take fire from the hearth,
or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
– Isaiah 30:12-14 (ESV)
The prophecy was presented to the rebellious nation from God. He shared about the entire nation having this iniquity . . . like that of a potter’s vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth. Huh? This national syndrome of iniquity would cause this entire nation to become like broken fragments of a potter’s vessel. In other words, their sin would cause them to be smashed so ruthlessly that they would be broken into pieces.
Our lives can be like that. We can live so far from God that we don’t even realize that we are out of touch with what God wants for us or what He desires from us. We can get out of touch with God and end up totally off track. We can think that we are headed somewhere and truly find ourselves off track.
In some cases, it is no fault of our own. We try to do right and try with all of our might to do well. We just always seem to end up with the short end of the stick. Mama dies. Daddy walked out on us. Friends drift away. Jobs and careers change. Family falls apart. The home team keeps losing (or, in some cases trades away the franchise player for some draft picks to be named later.) It’s outside of our realm of control.
However, there are also those times when we simply just don’t do right. We want to point our sanctified finger at the children of Israel for being stiff-necked and disobedient, even defiant.
But who are we to do such a thing?
Have you done every single thing that God has said for you to do? Uh-huh. Me, too.
Have you missed an opportunity to share the Goods News of Jesus Christ with some wayward soul? Yep. I’ve been there, too.
You see, if we keep it one hundred, we can honestly say that we haven’t done all of what God has said for us to do. We have let God down more than we have let God in. We have tried to uphold what we have chosen to believe rather than holding onto every Word of God.
I wrote Broken Pieces based upon being in such a place in my life. Even having many of the trappings of a happy life, I still felt broken. I still felt like the little that I was able to do was not getting done what I needed to do or that I had been called to do. I was just going through the motions. You have to pay a heavy and high price for going through the motions. It can be more costly than the search for success.
Order or download a copy of Broken Pieces. The poems and prayers included speak of how our lives can be mended from the fragments of failure. As I state in the book’s description: The pieces of our lives do not have to remain broken. He can put together the broken pieces.
Broken Pieces is available in print or e-Book formats.
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