Recently I posted about challenges and facing them in God’s strength.  I want to continue along that same vein and discuss the challenges, these personal icebergs, that we face.  This bears discussing because it’s important to know what we face, even if we are facing it in God’s strength. After all, understanding the nature of these things can help us be better equipped to deal with them.  

First let’s start with a few important reminders.  Remember, we all, mankind, just like all man-made things have limitations and weaknesses.  Man made things like The Titanic, the unsinkable ship that went down due to an iceberg.  We need to beware the icebergs.  In our life, our challenges and trials are the icebergs. When we navigate through treacherous iceberg prone waters, knowing what we might face can help us so to know to look out and prepare.

It’s important to note that just like icebergs come in all shapes and sizes in real life, our figurative icebergs do as well.  Sometimes it’s just one really big thing, one iceberg that can take down the whole mighty unsinkable ship. But other times it’s one small iceberg after another small iceberg after another small iceberg after another small iceberg and eventually a breaking point is reached. Maybe you felt like that in your life before. Like instead of experiencing one giant challenge that could completely destroy you, you’ve had a lot of small catastrophes or situations that are weakening you.  They are getting you closer and closer to that point where you can’t take anymore. Both are difficult places to be, whether it is one giant iceberg or many smaller ones. It is impossible to survive without the strength and grace of the Lord no matter which kind of iceberg you face. 

I remember when I was going through my divorce. It was difficult.  Well, call it difficult is an understatement, but there is not a word that would express the devastation caused by the divorce. It nearly broke me.  It wasn’t just the divorce though.  It was the year and 1/2 long separation in which I parented completely alone for over a year of it. With their father in a different state, he could not help. It was trying to adjust to a new school position only to find at the end of the year that I wasn’t reappointed. So, I had to go find another position. What choice did I have? I couldn’t give up, I had to keep trying to bail water out of what felt like a fast-sinking ship. It felt like that year was one thing after another and I was definitely reaching my breaking point.

I had to learn through painful experiences that it’s OK to admit that you are at the end of yourself. I think it’s important that we admit that. Denying doesn’t change it.  Trying to face it alone doesn’t make it better.  Realize that we all reach that point at one time or another in our life whether it’s because of one giant iceberg or 50 small ones. It takes just the right circumstances to get us to a point of weakness that can cause complete collapse and devastation, if not for God’s intervention. That is what I want to focus on.  Yes, we will all face the icebergs; however, we don’t face them alone. 

As a believer, we go from limited too limitless in God’s power. Here’s what I mean. In myself I have limitations on what I can handle and how strong I am. Yet God’s power in me gives me a strength beyond myself. Gives me a peace when there is only chaos. Gives me hope when there’s absolutely only darkness that my eyes can see. His power and grace gives me strength in a way that only God can give to his children. So, although God will allow life to bring things to us that we cannot handle in our own power and strength (because they’re beyond the limitations that we have inside of ourselves) he strengthens and enables us to go beyond our human limitations and abilities when we depend and lean on him. 

This is a great mystery. It is a wonder how there are times when his grace is sufficient because his power or strength is made perfect in our weakness. Wouldn’t it just be nice if we didn’t have the weaknesses? Yes, it would be, and I can’t tell you why sometimes God chooses to heal in this life and sometimes he chooses instead to bring the ultimate healing in the forever to come. That’s not the point I’m debating or discussing here. I can tell you though that until you breathe your last breath if you are a believer, he will strengthen you to face whatever life brings you if you lean on him.

Going back to that time in my life where I was at the breaking point, I remember saying to God “I can’t take anymore.” Yet it was only in that moment that I saw God move.  No, he didn’t move in the way I wanted; he didn’t melt all the icebergs.  No, instead he strengthens me and show me that although it would take time for me to recover, that he was working to bring about wholeness to my situation. He patched the hole and bailed out enough water.  He joined me as I continued to bail water out of my sinking my ship and slowly repaired my ship, so it was whole again, not sinking anymore.  It took time. He gave me hope that I wasn’t alone and that he would bring me to a place of complete healing again. That hope and peace gave me enough strength to keep standing. That knowledge that he was with me brought me comfort and fortitude where I lacked it in myself.  Knowing that he was working to restore me and my life, that knowledge sustained me and gave me that strength beyond my own to pushing forward.

We all are vessels, clay jars if you will. Sometimes we get knocked off the shelf, we might just get one crack, or we might shatter into large pieces or be so irrevocably damaged that there’d be no gluing it back together the way it was. Let me assure you though, that our Potter is wise enough, strong enough, and loving enough to know how to gather the pieces of us altogether and remake us. He will remake us better and stronger than we were before.

One of my favorite artists is Mandisa, she has such positive messages with her songs like “you’re an overcomer”. After she came out with that album, she wrote another song called “Unfinished.”  That lyrics go like this: “I’m not scared to say it, I used to be the one preaching it to you that you could overcome. I still believe it but it ain’t easy. Because that world I painted where things just all work out, it started changing and I started having doubts and it got me so down. But I picked myself back up and I started telling me. No, my God’s not done making me a masterpiece he’s still working on me. He started something good and I’m going to believe it, he started something good and he’s going to complete it. So, I’ll celebrate the truth his work in me ain’t through, I’m just unfinished.”

I don’t know what your vessel or your clay jar is going to go through or what ultimately his picture of the masterpiece that he’s creating you will be. I can tell you that he’s not finished. He’ll keep working on you lovingly, gently, and with grace your whole life. I can’t tell you how many times your clay jar will fall and shatter or how many pieces that you’ll break into.  I can tell you he can gather up all your brokenness no matter how impossible that seems.  I can’t tell you how complicated the mending will be or how many times you will have to go back on the wheel for some remolding. I can only promise you that the Potter doesn’t give up on the clay jar.  That he will pick up all the pieces and continue to work to make the masterpiece that you are. I can’t tell you that you won’t reach your breaking point.  I can only tell you that through the power and strength of Christ you will find strength beyond your own limits.  You have to cling to these promises and hold fast to them. We aren’t Humpty Dumpty, we are not fallen and irreparably damaged. We don’t need all the King’s horsemen and all the King’s men to put us together we just need Jesus. We are not sunken or defeated no matter what icebergs we face. 

I don’t know what state you’re in right now. Whether you are proclaiming how unsinkable you are and believing it, whether the vessel that is your life is freshly fallen on the floor and broken into a million pieces, whether your ship has hit an iceberg or two already, perhaps not enough to sink you but definitely leaving you more vulnerable.  Whatever your state I want to encourage you that although you have limitations and vulnerabilities within yourself you can stand firm on the solid rock that is God. In his strength no matter how strong the winds, no matter how devastating the situation, in his strength your house will stand.

All of the mighty can fall, I will choose to go ahead and bow humbly and recognize the one who can give me the strength to stand against it all. The true Mighty One who never fails. What will your choice be?