If I had to describe my work these days, and my passion, it's helping people understand that not only are the broken parts of who they are fixable, that truth is one of the most valuable parts of their being.
I know it's the most valuable part of mine. Much of my writing and speaking and teaching these days is me healing the broken parts of me out loud. In doing so, as I share the value I've discovered in my own brokenness, people begin to discover value in the broken parts of themselves. That doesn't make me God, but it does help me understand God. From the earliest seconds of humanity, when Adam and Eve were hiding in shame from God in the trees of the garden, God realized his immediate life's work wasn't going to be hanging out with us in a beautiful garden, it was going to be helping us find a beautiful garden in the things we'd rather God not see. God got so committed to this job that he left his own heavenly garden to come tell us firsthand, God to human and human to human, I don't care how overgrown your life is with weeds, you ARE a beautiful garden. God would go on to allow himself to be as physically broken as a human can be broken to say, there is beauty in your brokenness, I can see it so clearly up here hanging on this cross. The shepherds went to find Jesus in the manger, but not before Jesus had come to find the shepherds in a field. Came to find them to tell them, in your minds you are mere shepherds, in my mind, and in my heart, and in my life, you are everything beautiful. And now that you have found me, you have a beautiful story to share. Christmas is a reminder that we all have a story to share, and we don't have to wait until it's a happily ever story to share it. Happily ever after is often a myth. Broken is always a reality. So when it comes to helping the people around us, broken is often far more relatable, far more readable, than happily ever after. God has indeed promised us a happily ever after. But that promise doesn't often find us in our happiness, it finds us in our brokenness. If you are feeling broken this Christmas season, open that brokenness to the promise. And in all of those spaces where you might find yourself feeling unworthy, discover those might very well be some of the most worthy parts of you to someone else. I know they're the most worthy parts of you to the baby in a manger. He left heaven to tell you so.
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Robert "Keith" CartwrightI am a friend of God, a dad, a runner who never wins, but is always searching for beauty in the race. Archives
February 2025
CategoriesAll Faith Fatherhood Life Mental Health Perserverance Running |