Waiting for flourless chocolate cake
“Hi, I’m Paul,” he said with a big smile on his face. “Who are you?”
I ate dinner in the town where I grew up tonight and craved some chocolate for dessert. I googled nearby restaurants that had flourless chocolate cake (my favorite) and found one right across the street. Score. I walked into the charming, dimly lit restaurant, ordered my dessert, and waited at the bar. That’s when I met Paul.
“I’m Lauren,” I replied. “I notice you have an accent! Where are you from?” I asked. “Guess,” he said.
“Tell me another sentence so I have a fair shot!” I joked. The older gentlemen told me something about aluminum (which sounded more like alumninium) in his Audi. “England!” I said. “Yes!” he replied joyfully.
Paul asked if I knew much about England and I said I know a girl who lived in York. Using a wine bottle and his glass, Paul creatively designed a map of England and detailed all of the places he had lived — Manchester, Nottingham, Liverpool (where he got to know the actual Beatles), London, over to Germany and then to the United States for work. Now retired, Paul consults for a variety of businesses because he “isn’t really good at being retired.”
Paul asked what I do and I shared with him that I work for an church in the area. He said, “How delightful! I met Jesus later in my life when I was 56. That’s when I began a real relationship with him. My wife and I used to be a part of a church, but the pastor made some poor decisions so he ended up leaving. But the beautiful thing about grace, you know, is that it’s full of more grace. He worked elsewhere for a while, but now he’s back as a full-time pastor.” “I love how God redeems,” I told him.
“Oh yes! You know the neatest thing,” Paul remarked. “A few years later, I was having some inner struggles with actions I was making. I was really struggling. I didn’t know what to do. My old pastor walked me through that time and he said something to me I’ll never forget.”
“What did he say?” I asked.
Suddenly, in the middle of the restaurant on his high-top wooden chair, tears streamed down Paul’s face. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I get emotional. My old pastor said, ‘Isn’t it amazing how a broken man can help another broken man?’ Don’t you think that’s amazing?”
I smiled and said, “Absolutely.”
At church right now, we’re going through a series about David in the Bible — the king, shepherd, courageous warrior, worshipper, adulterer, and murderer. I have been fascinated that despite all David did right and all he did wrong, God called him “a man after His own heart” (Acts 13:22). When he messed up, instead of running away from God, David ultimately turned his face back to Him. He owned his mistakes and truly experienced grace, redemption and freedom.
One of my favorite parts of God is that he uses the broken parts of us to extend His Kingdom in the lives of others. Some of the most painful things we experience turn into the most beautiful testimonies as we help people through those same things. And God doesn’t require us to have it all together in order to be on His team. Even when we’re still bleeding and broken, He gives us the opportunity to be a part of the healing in another person’s life. And I’ve found, as that happens, as we step into the other person’s brokenness, our brokenness finds purpose and we start to heal, too.
Tonight, if you are bleeding and broken, I pray for a filling of hope. I am convinced God does not author brokenness in this story of life, but He does write a beautiful next chapter as we pour out our pain to him. And sometimes, He’ll weave someone like Paul’s broken pastor to be a part of our healing. And sometimes, we’ll get to be the broken pastor to someone like Paul.
Isn’t it amazing how a broken man can help another broken man?
Why yes, yes it is.
Joyfully,
Lauren
