The Value of Broken Things

If my life is broken when given to Jesus, it is because pieces will feed a multitude, while a loaf will satisfy only a little lad.

Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity (Revell, 2002), p. 41.

This is a reference to a miracle that Jesus performed in His earthly ministry, when He took a boy’s lunch and used it to feed a multitude. If the boy had selfishly held onto his five biscuits and two pieces of fish, he would have had a good lunch, but he would have missed out on a wonderful opportunity to let God use him to bless thousands of others. But Jesus took that lunch and broke it,  and in His hands it became sufficient to feed five thousand men plus women and children—and there were twelves baskets of leftovers!

God sometimes breaks me too. He allows my heart to be broken so that love and compassion can flow freely into the lives of those around me. Because until I am broken, I will be satisfied alone.

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Elisabeth Elliot’s writing has greatly influenced my life, even as a grown married woman. I truly wish someone had introduced me to her works when I was a teenager, but I am learning that it is never too late to incorporate the principles she teaches: namely, that passion is not sinful and purity is not prudish. Nor are they mutually exclusive. You can have both.