my anchored life:

Sometimes I forget that mine is a broken one.  I get so caught up in the day-to-day or so focused on the destination that I don’t stop and glance back over the long and winding roads of my past.  Cracked and bumpy roads. Some with wide crevices and deep pot holes.  Even the smooth ones reek of the freshly applied tar that only grace can cover.  But deep below the surface of those fancy, fresh roads–when you strip away the layers of grace that have been skillfully applied–the cracks can still be seen because some mistakes can be smoothed over, even though they can never be undone.

My journey is one of reckless words used to wound rather than to bind up brokenness.  It’s paved with not-so-lovely deeds motivated by selfishness rather than benevolence.  There are pot holes filled with pride, envy, doubt, anxiety, & gossip.  Not to mention the one million cracks overflowing with insecurity.

Even though I don’t always remember, I can’t ever really forget. And isn’t that the ultimate paradox?  No matter how much time I spend scrubbing myself of the mistakes {and heartaches} of my past, they remain.  Etched in my journey.  Forever.

People say you should never be ashamed of your mistakes because mistakes make us who we are.  But I believe that people lie.

Mistakes don’t make us who we are.  Grace does.  The grace of a Father who adores His children in spite of themselves.  The grace of a Creator wild about His creation.  The unfathomable grace of One who dares to love the unlovable and forgive the unforgivable.

I don’t want to expose the cracks along my journey.  But I want to remember that they exist.  Because when I look hard enough, I can see that all the cracks and holes are arrow-shaped.  Pointing me toward my destination.  Pointing me toward Grace.

 

 

 

 

**This post is part of an online community. A prompt is given every Friday and we are encouraged to just free-write for 5 minutes and post it to our blogs without over-thinking or editing. If you’d like to participate, you can get more info and link-up on this site.  This week’s writing prompt was, “Journey.”