“If we trust in him, God transforms ugly, hurtful circumstances into beautiful things that lift up and encourage us… He can take our brokenness and make something beautiful of it.”
This quote does a great job of capturing the full scope of Jacqueline Wallace’s book, Brokenness to Beauty: Transforming Your Brokenness into a Beautiful Life. Through the course of blogging, I get the chance to connect with a lot of fellow bloggers and Jacqueline is one such fellow blogger. As we got to discussing her book, she offered up a copy to review here at 1Glories and elsewhere on the web.
And I am so thankful she did.
Dissecting our Brokenness
If we trust in him, God transforms ugly, hurtful circumstances into beautiful things that lift up and encourage us… He can take our brokenness and make something beautiful of it. – Jacqueline Wallace
Within the narrative, Jacqueline uses her story of overcoming chronic illness as a child and managing it through life until a breast cancer diagnosis rekindles and stirs the despairing memories and fears. She relays a story of clinging to her foundation in the word, her walk with God and the power of being in a strong community of believers to overcome those challenges and witness the transforming of her brokenness into beautiful victory in God and contentment of her mind and soul.
During many moments while reading Brokenness to Beauty, I saw similarities between Jacqueline’s and my own personal experiences. I found many instances where I saw her chasing after “foolish” dreams for God while attempting to sync with his divine will. More specifically though, I saw her perseverance and the strength with which God equipped her to run the race with the intention, passion and spirit of winning for his ultimate glory in spite of life’s challenges.
For instance, in one section, she shares the emotions and feelings experienced when she learned and realized so many people – many of them complete strangers – were praying for her welfare. This was true of her battle with breast cancer, just as it was when she first battled myasthenia gravis (MG) as a child.
Despite the odds that came with her illnesses in both instances, she strove for and achieved foolish dreams of having a productive adult life that included marriage and children in addition to moving cross-country to begin a ministry (Mustard Seeds and Mountains) while living among the poor in West Virginia.
Along the way, she shares excerpts from her blog that were posted as she fought to overcome breast cancer. She also offers quotes of inspiration from the likes of Oswald Chambers, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Brother Lawrence, W.S. Bowd, Mark Galli, and nineteenth century missionary Amy Carmichael while interlacing several passages of scripture throughout.
I found Jacqueline’s sharing of her purpose of prayer and ways to approach prayer highly on point and refreshing. As she says, “The point of prayer is not to get our own way, but to move us into right relationship with God.”
I also really appreciated Jacqueline’s insight on what it means to seek God and fulfillment in the support of a loving community. “Community,” she says, “begins as we look outside of ourselves and deliberately reach out to others.”
Best of all, I was inspired by her take on purpose and what it represents. Our called purpose and God’s purposes – though it doesn’t always seem this way – operate in accord and serve as a good reminder that no matter what we do, it’s for His gain and our blessing. As she reminds us, God does not award merit points. “His purposes are being worked out through my life even in the midst of all this mess.”
Inspired by Brokenness
And on that note, let’s be mindful that – when grounded in the Word, fortified in prayer, and embodied in the community of saints, we find purpose for life’s struggles and victories. They are our blessing and a means for refining life, on purpose. Jacqueline’s candid retelling of her experiences and lessons along the way are a genuine inspiration that are sure to inspire and stir readers to long for the glories of God and the richness of his promises.
