All Is Not Lost

All is not lost. It may look like it, but, God can do impossible things in impossible situations. Right when you think there is no hope. God is a master at placing chaos on His canvass and making something beautiful out of it.

I recently saw an illustration of a plate and a bowl. The plate was bigger than the bowl.

In the illustration, an adult asked a young person to place the plate in the bowl. Well, the plate was obviously too big for the bowl. And the youth said they could not do it.

The adult responded, “Yes. You can.”

At that, the adult placed a cloth over the plate and took out a hammer. And began to break the plate. The youth was shocked at the actions of the adult and hearing the plate being broken into hundreds of pieces of pottery.

As the adult lifted the cloth from the table, the plate was shattered in many pieces. So, the adult began to pick up the pieces and place them in the bowl. When all of the pieces were placed in the bowl, the adult looked at the youth and simply said, “If you want to be fully in a place, you have to be willing to be broken.”

I was thinking that all of us right now must be willing to be broken and changed if we are going to understand what it is like to empathize with others and fit into their lives and their situation.

Prayer as a Change Agent

One of the most powerful change agents is prayer. And prayer not only changes things, prayer changes me.

I often hear people say, “We need to do more than pray.”

Sure, I understand that. But, I also hear what they are saying. They are saying that we need more action. It is usually people who don’t pray that say we need to do more than prayer. Because people of prayer rarely say that.

See, I believe our actions are important. But, without prayer, our actions are simply man-made and manipulative. Because prayer changes people first. And then people have a much easier time of bringing change.

Look at the relationship between prayer and change:

  • Prayer places God at the center of our request (we pray to KNOW not to get)

  • Prayer reminds me that I am finite (and that God is infinite)

  • Prayer places us in the right frame of mind (it reminds me that I am dependent)

  • Prayer changes me before the situation (I may need changing first)

  • Prayer changes people in the situation (everyone may need a mindset adjustment)

  • Prayer starts into motion ideas and solutions (the highest form of creativity)

  • Prayer assures that the change will be God’s will (on earth as it is in heaven)

I recently was on the streets of the city I lived for 17 years. I have prayed thousands of prayers for Minneapolis and made hundreds of prayer walks through the streets. With everything going on right now in the city, this has been my prayer lately.

“Lord, make US an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let US sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

Divine Master, grant that WE

may not so much seek to be

consoled as to console,

to be understood, as to understand,

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving, that we receive,

it is in pardoning, that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying, that we are born to eternal life.”

-Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Finally

Be willing to be broken and changed for the world around you.

See, today two things can be true: My heart was broken for the hurting, and yet, hopeful for the Church. I pray that you would break me for the broken. And I pray that you would make me for the broken.

There are so many great churches in this city. I pray that each would be a place of grace, healing, and hope in a city that desperately needs Jesus today. God, BREAK the church and MAKE the church to empathize with the broken of Minneapolis.

Jeff Grenell