I receive messages from a mental health organisation called ‘Moodscope’, focussing on how to deal with differing moods and remain able to see the ‘bigger picture’ when times of depression or anxiety hit. Today’s message had the title ‘broken crayons still colour’ and looked at how easy it is when depressed or anxious to feel just a shadow of your self and therefore for feelings of uselessness and helplessness to increase. It is easy to become locked in a vicious circle: feeling low about yourself leads you to condemn yourself which leads you to focus on negative thoughts even more and so the cycle continues.
The fact remains, the writer commented, that broken crayons still colour. Even when we feel useless, a shadow of our real selves, we are still able to be used by God to love, encourage and help others. I have been meditating on 2 Cor 4: 6-7 lately: ‘For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.’
We have the treasure of God’s life within us, the treasure of His Spirit living and working within our earthly bodies. And God’s not finished with us yet! (see ‘Create In Me’ by Rend Collective) We may well be broken, but we can still run into God’s arms and know His joy is available to us. (‘Joy’, Rend Collective) We may well be a broken crayon, but we can still colour. We can still show God’s love, grace, mercy and forgiveness to a broken world. It’s when we are weak that He is strong. (2 Cor 12:9-10)