Glass or Gladware?

I was talking to a friend recently about a very challenging problem in her life. The situation she is in is difficult because it involves a choice that she cannot make, she must wait for someone else to make it. She knows the answer to the problem, but the other party refuses that the answer is correct. That answer is bending the knee to God and giving Him control and authority over every aspect of life. As I tried to make her see the situation from the perspective of the other party’s pain, I told her this:

Sometimes we think it is easier to “be tough” than we think it is to break.

How often do we press on through life and difficult situations, by putting on our thick skin and resolving to “be tough” because we “can handle it” instead of just breaking into pieces before God so that He can put us back together into the work that He intended? I think we are afraid that if we break, He might fail in putting us back together. He might put us back together into something we are unfamiliar with and we may be forced to do life differently than we ever have before. That break might produce change, and we are scared to death of change.

Let’s travel to the kitchen cabinets for a minute and let me illustrate what I mean in a very practical way to us girls.

Open your cabinet doors. What do you see? In one cabinet I see several toss away plastic Gladware containers. Now, don’t misinterpret my explanation as a lack of affection for these handy dandy containers, they have gotten me through many a pinch! I love those things, they serve a wonderful purpose, but truthfully, they don’t last very long. After a bit of use, a few rounds through the dishwasher, freezing and defrosting, the corners begin to crack or the lids begin to split and I toss them away.

In the other cabinet, I see glass mixing bowls, glass casserole dishes, ceramic serving platters, etc, some of them I have had since my wedding shower. They are durable, they can be used over and over, and unless I drop one of them to the floor and shatter it, I will still have it years from now. Yes, they are breakable, but in reality, they are much more valuable to me than my Gladware. Someday I will be able to pass these along to my daughters or my granddaughters, but the Gladware will be long gone.

Do you get what I’m saying here? The plastic dishes are “tougher” and the others are “breakable”, but which one has the lasting value? We can chose to “be tough” instead of chosing to be “breakable”, but what about “being tough” is lasting? It takes more strength to break than it does to be weak. Being tough is not true strength at all.

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Psalms 34:18

Lord God, the One to which every knee will bend, create in me a breakable spirit, grow my faith that I might trust your rebuilding plan when I am broken. I invite you to change my heart into one that is pliable and open to the change You see necessary in me. Father, remove the deception from our minds that tells us that breaking is weakness, because it really does take more strength to break than it does to be weak. Jesus, may You be that strength that I need to break and fall apart before You, ready to let You do your work and execute your perfect plan.




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