Broken

• Noah was drunk.
• Abraham was too old.
• Isaac was a daydreamer.
• Joseph was abused.
• Moses had a stuttering problem.
• Gideon was afraid.
• Samson was a womanizer.
• Rahab was a prostitute.
• Jeremiah and Timothy were too young.
• David had an affair and was a murderer.
• Elijah was suicidal.
• Isaiah preached naked.
• Jonah ran from God. 
• Naomi was a widow.
• Job went bankrupt.
• Peter denied Christ.
• The disciples fell asleep while praying.
• Martha worried.
• Paul was too religious.
• Lazerus was dead

We've all seen lists like this. Yet we still think we are unusable. That there is too much wrong in our lives for God to possibly be able to work through the mess. We put the people the Bible tells us about up on a pedestal, as if they were somehow so much better than we can ever hope to be. That's not true. Read the stories. Their lives were generally a mess. What they had was FAITH. I've been reading the Old Testament, and the faith shown blows me away. There are chapters and chapters about how horrible things are, or are going to be because the people have turned away from God then BOOM: hope. This unfailing hope that no matter what, God is going to come through. And He does. Mind blown. It is so easy to get caught up in the hard things in life and lose sight of that hope. Is that self-centered or what? Pastor Greg says all the time that God uses broken people. He picks the underdog every time. The weak to shame the strong. And let's face it, we're all broken. We want to be "on fire" but forget that that involves burning. A life is never to shattered.