She held a small wooden cross during every chemo treatment. I sat beside Mom on this day, praying for no side effects, but also prepared for a deep talk. She was on a mission, and she looked at me with a serious, loving look that I knew well. Her crooked finger pointed at me to make sure I listened.“Lisa, it’s about giving. It’s about purpose. It’s about knowing you are never too broken for God
to use your story. In fact, many times God uses that brokenness to reach others. Everyone has broken places in their lives. Everyone.”
I listened intently, knowing there was a reason for every conversation these days. She knew.
When Mom was diagnosed with cancer, she looked straight into my eyes and said, “Giving
equals joy, joy equals hope, and hope equals healing.” Mom taught me it is in giving where we
find our purpose and healing. Giving was the theme throughout her cancer journey, and she
talked about how God wants to use our gifts to bless others. Often, it is in our brokenness that we are most able to pour ourselves out.
As my favorite author Ann Voskamp says, “Be the gift!”
We have all walked through deep brokenness, the raw place that knocks the wind out of us and
leaves us feeling vulnerable. Most of us carry an “unspoken broken.” Mom and I talked often about the brokenness we were both walking through – her cancer, and my autoimmune diseases. In our darkest moments, Mom would remind me that God takes the shattered pieces and creates a beautiful mosaic. But we must open our arms in surrender and let him create that masterpiece.
The words Mom poured into me during that time were tested as I walked through a broken place. Her words were a salve to my soul on the days when the only prayer I could utter was, “Jesus, help!” It was a cry of surrender that came from a deep place in my soul, but this is also the place where miracles wait. “God sees the broken as the best and sees the best in the broken. He causes the wounded to be world changers,” says Ann Voskamp.
Many times, we find the abundant life we crave in the broken pieces that lay at our feet. If we
look carefully at those pieces, we see the beginning of a miracle. In my own life, the shattered
pieces of Mom’s cancer and my autoimmune disease created the miracle of what is now Lisa Bain Ministries.
God has been faithful to show up in every place of brokenness, revealing truth, giving
protection, and opening doors. He has been faithful to carry the battle for me, reminding me it
was always His.
I have seen how a grateful and giving heart has power in our most broken places. One of my favorite quotes from Ann Voskamp is, “The best way to de-stress is to bless.” It works. The way to live life with your one broken heart is to give it away. It’s like a bucket we can continually
pour from, blessing others in their brokenness as we remember our own. Wouldn’t it be more fulfilling to know that at the end of our days, our bucket will be empty? Mom made her journey to heaven with an empty bucket, giving until her very last breath. She
was trying to instill in me this same desire for emptiness as a way to walk the journey ahead.
My strength for what was coming would be my ability to give fearlessly through my brokenness.
This is where the beginning of the miracle waits. God, your Redeemer, has a masterpiece to
create with your life, and you have a gift to give, even in your most broken place.