Letting Go of Disappointments and Painful Losses Read Online Free

paper and colored markers, and when they were all finished, they showed the others their new drawings.
    Sarah’s new picture intrigued me. Guessing at its implications, I felt a surge of excitement. Once again she had drawn a perfectly symmetrical vase with swirly handles on the sides. Once again, the same two large hands firmly gripped it. The deep crack down the middle of the vase was still there too.
    But Sarah had added something new. Using a fluorescent yellow marker, she had drawn heavy lines, like beams of light, spilling out of the fissure and flowing to the edge of the paper. Pointing to the crack she said,
“That’s
where God shines through.”
    As the others reflected on her drawing, one woman said, “Hey, it looks more like a
trophy
than a vase to me.”
    “Yes!” said another who knew Sarah’s story. “You’re in God’s hands. You’re a trophy of His grace.” The rest of the women nodded.
    Once again I was reminded that it is through our suffering, our trials, and our wounds that God’s glory is oftenrevealed. The caption under Sarah’s picture could have read “2 Corinthians 4”:
    For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
    Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
    2 C ORINTHIANS 4:6–9, 16–18
    Unadorned clay pots. Vases with cracks. Earthenware jars with chips and dings and flaws. People with troubles, perplexities, weaknesses, traumas, and fear. That’s all we are without God.
    But
with
God … oh, we are so much more.
    With God, we are people with a treasure inside, a treasure whose value is beyond price, reckoning, or comprehension. We are men and women with God’s glory at work in us. His work doesn’t entail removing our weaknesses or hardships. No, His work is displayed as He releases His divine power
through
our weaknesses.
    When life is hard and God is in us
, our broken places can become the windows where His glory shines through.
    When life is hard and God is in us
, we who are broken pots can become trophies.
    When life is hard and God is in us
, we can rest assured that somehow, in some way, He will bring His redeeming glory to bear in our lives and in the lives of others.
    The longer I work with trauma victims, the more I am convinced that if a heart is open and truthful, there is
no
pain so deep or pervasive that God cannot heal it. And, as with Sarah, the broken places of our lives—the fractures, fissures, and jagged edges—can become the very locales where God’s glory spills through in a torrent of light, hope, and healing. Out of our own personal darkness, God’s penetrating light can touch those who still grope in the shadows.
    Just ask one of the regulars on the Rape Crisis Hotline.
    Her voice is strong, but softened by a deep compassion. The calls she receives on any given night vary wildly. But Sarah knows her assignment. She knows she’s supposed to be there—just for those who need a glimpse of a strong and steady light penetrating the long night. 3
    Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to the place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken.
    H ENRI J. M. N OUWEN

C HAPTER T HREE
R ELINQUISH
CONTROL
T O G OD

    A NUMBER OF YEARS AGO I WAS INVITED TO SPEAK AT A major