by Pastor David Odom

I was in the local Walmart this week and there was a lady and two kids behind me in a long line. One was a big kid, and the other one was a toddler. The bigger one had a pack of glow sticks, and the toddler was screaming for them. The mom opened the pack and gave him one, which stopped the tears. He walked around smiling, but the bigger boy took it, and the toddler began screaming again.

Just as the mom was about to fuss, the older child bent the glow stick and handed it back to the toddler. As we walked outside at the same time, the toddler noticed that the stick was now glowing. His brother said, “I had to break it so that you could get the full effect from it.”

I almost ran, because I could hear God saying to me, “I had to break you to show you why I created you. You had to go through it so you could fulfill your purpose.”

That precious child was happy just swinging that “unbroken” glow stick around in the air, because he didn’t understand what it was created to do — which was “glow.”

There are some people who will be content just “being,” but some of whom God has chosen……we have to be “broken.”

We may have to get sick.

We may have to lose a job.

We may have gone through a divorce.

We may have had to bury spouses, parents or close family members, or maybe even a child.

In those moments of desperation, God is breaking us, BUT…..when the breaking is done, then we will be able to see the reason for which we were created. So, when you see us glowing, just know that we have been broken but healed by HIS Grace and Mercy!!!!

I borrowed this story to tell you that you may feel beaten down and broken and you may feel like you can’t take much more. But, God is bending you, just like that glow stick. He is bending you into the shape that he needs you so that your light can shine the brightest. Sometimes he bends us to get us out of our comfort zone and then sometimes he bends us till we break. We can’t see what he is doing at the time, but all that bending and stress and the breaking is what lets our light shine. Without going through situations in our life we wouldn’t be equipped to help others while they are in their trials. Without climbing the mountains, the views at the top wouldn’t mean as much. Without experiencing certain things in our life we are not able to understand what others are truly going through. It is during those hard times when we learn to lean on God and use that comfort to help others in their time of need.

We are in the midst of celebrating the Christmas Holiday, which is the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God sent his son Jesus so that his body could be bent and broken on that old rugged and cruel cross so that he could let the Light of the World shine. If the body of Jesus had never been broken for you and me, we never would have had the chance to celebrate Easter. If Jesus had not been broken on the cross, we would have no Hope.

If we are not bent and broken we would not be able to share that hope with others and be that Glowing Light. Through your BROKEN – NESS this holiday let your light shine in a dark world. Matthew 5: 14-16 “Ye are the Light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

GOD BLESS and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

(The Solution Column is provided by the Rev. Brandon Young of Harmony Free Will Baptist Church, Hampton, and his associate, David Odom)