“I can remember more than one time in my life when I felt completely broken; yet I’m still here.”
WHEN I WAS TREATED LIKE AN OUTCAST BECAUSE I DIDN’T FIT IN.
WHEN MY HEART WAS BROKEN BY A BOYFRIEND FOR THE ZILLIONTH TIME.
WHEN I GOT A D IN PSYCH 101 MY FRESHMAN YEAR IN COLLEGE….I WAS A PSYCHOLOGY MAJOR.
WHEN MY FRIEND STOLE MY IDENTITY AND LEFT ME IN DEBT AND NO ONE BELIEVED ME.
WHEN EACH ONE OF MY GRANDPARENTS PASSED AWAY.
WHEN I FOUND OUT I MAY NEVER BE ABLE TO BEAR A CHILD.
This list barely even scratches the surface of the times in my life when I’ve felt broken. What about you? I’m sure you can also make a list of all the times you were in so much emotional or even physical pain that you felt like you couldn’t go on.
But guess what!? You’re still here too.
You are not broken. You are not weak. Like me and so many others, you are making it through day-by-day.
“You may be hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. - 2 Corinthians 4:8-9
POSITIVITY AND PAIN
I often get asked, “How do you go on, how do you stay so positive even when you face such heartbreak and pain?”
My simple answer….
“I believe in the power of YET
There have been too many examples of when I thought all hope was lost; BUT GOD made a way.
THERE WAS A TIME WHEN I HAD VERY FEW CLOSE FRIENDS AND FELT SO LONELY; BUT GOD HAS NOW FILLED MY LIFE WITH MORE TRUE AND DEEP FRIENDSHIPS THAN I COULD HAVE DREAMED OF.
I EXPERIENCED YEARS AND YEARS OF ROMANTIC HEARTBREAKS AND THOUGHT I WOULD BE SINGLE THE REST OF MY LIFE; BUT GOD BROUGHT MICAH AND I TOGETHER AND WE’VE BEEN MARRIED OVER 15 YEARS NOW.
I FELT LIKE I HAD WASTED YEARS OF MY LIFE (AND A LOT OF $) GETTING A DEGREE IN PSYCHOLOGY THAT I WOULD NEVER USE; BUT GOD HAS USED IT TO HELP ME COMFORT AND ENCOURAGE WOMEN.
I THOUGHT MY LIFE WAS WORTHLESS BECAUSE I COULDN’T BEAR A CHILD; BUT GOD GAVE ME THIS MINISTRY AND I’VE FOUND MY PURPOSE.
I could go on, but I think you see my point. I’ve learned through the tough times in my life, that there has never been a situation in my life that was so broken that God can’t mend. He’s mended my heart, my relationships and my mind.
Seeing how He mends my feelings of brokenness even when His answer to my specific prayer may have been “no, Jamila, I’m gonna do this another way” has helped me grow to trust Him even more.
IT’S NOT OVER.
If you’ve been a part of our community for awhile, you might have noticed that I really like exclamation points!! I’ve had English teachers and editors and even friends tell me I overuse them a bit. Or as writer F. Scott Fitzgerald said “Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own jokes.” (I do that too, BTW 🤣)
But my favorite punctuation to use is actually the semicolon.
Most of the time I actually wear one around my neck.
A semicolon is used to link two independent phrases that are closely related in thought.
It’s literally a period on top of a comma.
The statement before it can be true (period); but (comma) God is still working.
In recent years the semicolon has become a symbol of mental health awareness, because it is a pause in a sentence, not the end of one. In other words, it’s not the end, keep going, keep living on.
It’s symbolic to me of choosing to go on.
That’s how I think about the seasons in my life when I feel broken.
I AM HEARTBROKEN RIGHT NOW; YET I’LL KEEP GOING BECAUSE I KNOW GOD WILL GIVE ME STRENGTH.
I DON’T KNOW WHERE THE MONEY I NEED IS GOING TO COME FROM; YET I KNOW GOD WILL MAKE A WAY.
I AM HURT AND CONFUSED; YET GOD IS MY COMFORT.
I AM WORRIED ABOUT THE FUTURE; YET GOD HAS A PLAN FOR OUR GOOD.
The semicolon, that period and comma, for me represents my willingness to surrender all my broken pieces to God and trust that He will restore my joy and hope.
The semicolon reminds me to never give up, because God is not done yet.
I believe in the power of yet. Do you?
Jamila is the founder of loved+blessed. On her personal mission to leave a legacy of encouragement, she blogs about her own life lessons with the hope that it will bring joy into others’ lives and help them find the courage to keep walking in faith knowing that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord. Read her testimony of how God turned her misery into ministry.
