Today in prayer Tim Ingram dropped the phrase "Beautifully Broken."  When he did, I thought of all of us and our CARE ministries.  In this season, it's been my joy to get to know each of you deeper and in a more personal way.  I've been blessed by who you are and the ways that God is working through our lives.  Each week I am simply awed by how God is using us to literally change people's lives because of His love shown to them.  He is truly, truly pleased with us as we are serving Him this season.  He is showing up in incredible ways and blessing us with His presence.

As I grew up, I used to think that the people who had things figured out were the ones who never got hurt.  They were big, invulnerable, and tough.  As I've matured I've realized that in God's Kingdom the spiritual giants are the ones who love extravagantly, who make themselves vulnerable, and those who love deeply.  They are the ones who may have been hurt, and hurt deeply, but choose to go on loving, go on living, and refuse to let their wounds stop them.  In fact, they use those wounds to reach out to others that never, ever would have listed to them without them.  In my life, I find the people I love the most and are able to minister to the most are the ones who have been wounded as I have.  God has and is working deeply in my heart to help me to grow, but as Tim prayed about beautifully broken, I couldn't help but think of a stained glass window that is full of broken, shattered pieces, that, in the hands of the master, shows His light, His glory, shows His picture.

Let me encourage you in all that you're doing that you are doing an amazing job.  You're loving...You're living...You're blessing those around you...you really, really are.

In your prayer time today, l invite you to join me in praising God for the ways that we've been beautifully broken, to share with others God's light.

Gen 50:20  says, "You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result, the survival of many people."  Friends, know that God is using the things you have lived through to bring about nothing less than the survival of the people you minister to.  He is using you to change lives every week.  I see it, and I'm blessed to be a part of it.