Your Broken Is Beautiful by Amber Ginter

by Rachael Adams | Oct 3, 2024 | The Love Offering Guest Blog Series

I used to believe the lie that I had to have everything together before I was capable of helping others.

As a teen, this wasn’t a huge issue. Hosting events, volunteering, and serving were synonymous with my last name. I didn’t realize how broken, fragmented, and crazy my life would get over the next decade.

By the time I graduated college, I felt utterly worthless. Getting diagnosed with 10+ mental and physical health conditions right out of school will do that to you. I’d always grown up around chaos and anxiety, but now the turmoil was within.

Daily, sometimes hourly, my mind spat vicious accusations:

“Do you really think you can help others when you can’t help yourself?”

“If you call yourself a Christian then why are you still anxious?”

“You are far too messed up and depressed to lead others to Jesus.”

“Your trauma will never serve a purpose.”

It’s as if I believed my brokenness disqualified me from obeying one of Christ’s greatest and most sacred commands:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31, NIV).

The truth friends, is this: If we believe in Jesus, our brokenness is an opportunity to help others because our lives are love offerings.

John 15:13 puts it this way: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (NIV).

Perhaps the greatest gift we can bring hurting people is the journey and testimony of our path from pain to healing.

Maybe the most valuable treasure we can share with them is that God doesn’t expect us to have it all together.

No, it’s in recognizing those flaws and mess-ups that we are human beings in need of someone beyond ourselves. What a gift to be able to share that message with someone else. Someone just as crazy, and a little less than perfect or put together, just like us.

As I’ve wrestled to understand God’s plans for my life, I’ve realized this: Maybe my healing hasn’t come because I’m called to reach people like me. People stuck in the middle of believing they will never be well enough to live a life of service.

But the Gospel preaches another message. When we are weak, it’s His power that shines through our brokenness. And our brokenness is what makes us so valuable. Without it, we’d never know our need for a Savior. Without it, we’d never know our need for light.

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-11, NIV).

I don’t know what thoughts and anxieties you’re wrestling with today, but I do know you’re not alone. The enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy. That includes infiltrating our minds so he can get to our souls. If Satan can convince you you’re too far gone, worthless, and lost beyond hope—you’ll never fulfill your God-given purpose (which often includes sharing how because of Jesus, you’re never too far gone, but highly favored, esteemed, and worth dying for).

Being imperfect doesn’t disqualify us from God’s good and perfect plans for us—it empowers us. And He who began a good work in you will follow it through to completion (Philippians 1:6).

Brokenness was part of that design. We’re all broken people with messed up, flawed, and imperfect details we’d rather leave out of our resumes and biographies. But without our brokenness, we would never know our greatest need for Him.

Your brokenness is beautiful, friend. Don’t be afraid to let it shine.

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

Agape, Amber

About the Author:

Amber Ginter is a teacher-turned-author who loves Jesus, her husband Ben, and granola. Growing up Amber looked for faith and mental health resources and found none. Today, she offers hope for young Christians struggling with mental illness that goes beyond simply reading your Bible and praying more. Because you can love Jesus and still suffer from anxiety. You can download her top faith and mental health resources for free to help navigate books, podcasts, videos, and influencers from a faith lens perspective. Visit her website at amberginter.com.