Beyond a Shattered Past – Flash Fiction and Raw Thoughts

She stared at the bloody shards in her hands.

Pieces of a life shattered by selfish choices. Foolish choices. The weight of a broken world was hard enough to bear when it was thrown by the choices of others, but this…this guilt…

It crippled. It crushed.

It condemned.

She clenched her fists in agony, the shards digging deep into her palms.

“Let them go.”

Her head turned slowly towards the voice, the ghost of her soul peering through tangled hair and teary eyes. “Let them go? But I…I can’t. I can’t…”

Didn’t He know what it was to bear such guilt? She’d brought this on herself…she had to bear it now.

“Let them go.”

Eyes still warily searching His face, she let her fingers uncurl, and the shards shattered at her feet. A few had lodged themselves deep in her palm. Her gaze questioned, and He nodded.

“Yes, even those.”

Her face knotted and tears flowed as she picked out the last of the shards and let them go. They glinted sanguine light, but she turned her face from their allure and saw His smile.

He offered His arm. “The wounds will heal in time. Now we walk.”

Tears sprang afresh as she eyed the broken road ahead of her.

“I did this, too,” she choked, and buried her face in His shoulder.

He held her close and let her weep. Stroking her hair, He whispered,

“What glory will rise from walking an easy road?”

Scripture and history are ripe with the stories of legendary sinners who shook the world for God.

After letting his life be defined by cowardice, a tongue-tied murderer stood up to his country’s most powerful ruler, led his people for decades in the wilderness, and spoke face to face with the Lord as a friend.

A track record of selfishness, disobedience, and a disastrous love life left a hero blinded and in chains. God still chose to use him to bring vengeance on His enemies.

One of the worst examples of a righteous woman you could find, she opened her home and protected the lives of complete strangers on a mission to destroy her city. Forsaking all she’d ever known, she chose to follow God and joined the lineage of the Messiah.

God chose Moses. God chose Samson. God chose Rahab.

God chose you.

Your broken story may not bring you glory. It may bring you shame. Guilt. Feelings of worthlessness.

Fight them.

You aren’t defined by your past. You’re defined by the One who humiliated Himself and gave everything to love you, pursue you, and win you for eternity.

That. That is your worth.

You’ve been freed to serve in victory and live like a treasure.

He will use your brokenness to glorify Him to the utmost. ❤

“…one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:13b-14

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