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Brokenhearted, I needed a new perspective. Five years ago a mom who also needed a new perspective wrote to me. Her child almost died and she was in great pain: “As a parent, getting the news that your child is gravely (and perhaps mortally) injured is life-altering. I had no idea what it meant to be truly terrified. I never even realized that I didn’t know what true fear was. The altered consciousness, the limited focus, the way, hours later, I realized I still couldn’t breathe properly. I’d hurt muscles and scraped my feet but never even processed those things because the part of my heart that lives in my daughter was nearly broken beyond repair.”

Her words resonated with my brokenness. Yes, that’s true! Part of me lives in my children. Another statement I read that helped explain the reason I felt like I did was this: “We’re only as happy as our saddest child.” I’m not sure I believe this today, but at the time I thought, No wonder I’m a mess. I needed a shift in perspective.

Has your heart almost been broken beyond repair?

Have you experienced what it means to be truly terrified?

As I write these words, I nod in affirmation. Maybe you’re nodding too.

A Shattered Heart

When my heart shattered over my daughter’s destructive choices and struggles, I entered another realm. Fear blanketed my heart. Years later, finding the words to describe my brokenness today is still difficult, but if you have a troubled child, you know. You’ve been there.

Dear mom or dad, you may be broken, but you’re not completely destroyed. You may be hard-pressed and afflicted in every way, but you’re not crushed. Mystified and baffled, yes, but not hopeless. Take a deep breath. You’re not beyond God’s help. When you bring the shattered pieces of your life to the Lord and lay them at his feet, He can put you back together again.

Hard Isn’t Necessarily Bad

However, you won’t be the same. Suffering changes those who suffer, but God comforts and transforms the broken. I like what author/pastor Mark Vroegop said in an interview: “Suffering is hard but hard isn’t necessarily bad. Our pain can bring us strange and unwanted gifts. God has gifted us with

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our pain.”

Pain brings strange and unwanted gifts? That’s a huge shift in perspective. Friend, has God given you the unwanted gift of pain? Anything that hurts is unwanted. We try to avoid hurt and pain at all costs. I grumble about pain and seek to alleviate discomfort, especially for emotional pain. How do you respond?

While God sends the Holy Spirit to comfort and console us in our suffering, he also uses pain to shape us more into the likeness of his Son and to prepare us for heaven. In divine wisdom and by His mighty power, what appears ruined to us is redeemed.

Vroegop went on to say once we’ve had time to grieve, “It’s time for us to make our pain a platform for worship.”

Pain, a platform for worship? How could that be possible?

Maybe the answer is in the way Scripture encourages us to focus on the good our suffering can accomplish:

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4: 16 – 18 ESV).

The apostle Paul, who penned these words, understood. He and his companions endured severe trials. They also experience God’s supernatural comfort. Notice the verbs he used in verses 8 – 10 in the beginning of this devotional:

Hard-pressed. Persecuted. Perplexed. Struck down . . . but . . .

Not crushed, not perplexed, not in despair, not abandoned, not destroyed.

An Eternal Perspective

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How did the early Christians stay strong in the face of great suffering? They kept an eternal perspective. They acknowledged their suffering was hard, but hard wasn’t necessarily bad. They had confidence this chapter of their lives wasn’t the end of the story.

Don’t lose heart. Be renewed day by day. Look to the things that are unseen and eternal.

They knew God had more.

They let their pain become a platform for worship.

They persevered day by day with God’s help. The Spirit of God showed them the temporary nature of their suffering. What really mattered was invisible and would outlast them, could never be taken away, or cease to exist.

Their present reality—their hard—wasn’t the last word. Neither is yours.

They staked their lives on it and so can you.

You may have been broken, but you are NOT beyond repair.

NOT BEYOND REPAIR!

Prayer: Dear God, I need Your help. My heart is broken over my child. Sadness crushes me. The pain consumes me. I feel broken beyond repair. This has been likfe-altering. Show me how to focus on truth during these hard times. Train my soul to believe hard is not bad … it’s just hard. Real hard. Set my gaze on Jesus, the comfort he gives, and the eternal glory that awaits me. I may feel broken today, but I claim that I am not beyond repair! In the life-altering name of Jesus. Amen.