As we begin a New Year today, I have to let you in on a struggle. The struggle is that I start each year with the best of intentions. I spend time reading my bible reading plan, but have a hard time making it through the entire year. My desire fades part way through the year. I find myself running on autopilot by the middle of summer. Then by the end of the year, I’m simply hanging on for dear life! 

I could say that this  year will be different. I could make a resolution to have greater resolve with my personal quiet time, but all that does is set me up for failure. I know that I”m not the only one who faces this struggle because a friend recently shared how they want Jesus to be the fire burning inside them but have a hard time keeping him as a major priority. So what do we do? How do we get through another year of disappointment and self-regret? How do we get our priorities straight again?

This morning as I sit in my office going through some plans for 2018, I stumbled across this song. It hit me square between the eyes. My admission of my faults means that I’m broken, but not smashed. I’m gracefully broken. I’m broken to pieces, pieces that can and will be reassembled. And as much as I want to keep Jesus at the core of my life, making him the center of every morning and the final thought of every night, I know that my brokenness will keep this from happening. But there’s a light here…

Just because I don’t keep him at the core, making him the center of all I say and do, doesn’t mean that he’s not there. Actually it’s just a greater reminder of his grace for you and me. So friend, as you struggle to keep Jesus at the center of your decisions, as your devotion life fades to another task on your bedtime to-do list, as your excitement wanes and your focus shifts here this – His focus is unwavering. His love for you is unchanging. His pursuit for your heart is never stopping. Jesus wants all of you. He wants the good moments that you are willing to share but he also wants the moments when you’re gracefully broken.

Today, go ahead and make that resolution. Decide what your year will hold. Then be flexible. Let God take you where he has planned for you to go. Finally, don’t try to repair your gracefully broken self alone. Know that someone is with you to walk alongside and help you find the pieces that have fallen and restore what is broken.

Friends today as you search for meaning in this world, as you look for answers to your heart’s desires may you find them in the broken moments when all you can do is rest in the arms of Jesus. May you find your true self as he ignites your passion from the coldest, darkest night. Jesus has not left you and neither have we, your friends and family. May God find you where you are and bring you back. May he provide healing to your soul and rest for your weary hands. And may 2018 bring you a new sense of meaning in the presence of a God who pursues you.

Go ahead and be gracefully broken, because only the broken can feel the hands of Jesus putting them back together again.