Let Go of the Broken Pieces

As I was putting on my makeup this morning, I heard the Lord say – why are you holding on to this? This was my makeup palette of eyeshadows. It is really good stuff. It lasts a very long time (probably a year) and it is worth every penny once a year. Anyone who meets or knows me, knows immediately, I like makeup. I’m Southern, I love makeup. Can’t help it. Well, a few weeks ago, a tragedy happened with my makeup. With my frequent work and personal travels, I have packing my makeup down to an art. But a few weeks back in my hotel room, the bathroom counter was tiny and I was trying to be all organized and lay things out, but I knocked my eyeshadow pallet off the counter on to the floor. I knew it was broken. Of course, it didn’t land on the mat; it landed on the corner on the faux marble floor then one bounce flat upside down and pictured here are the remnants and crumbles of my two favorite eye shadows. Note – the ones I don’t use, in the middle, didn’t crumble. Hmmm… I’m bitter.

So I went to the store last week to buy the replacement and placed it in the back of the makeup tray. I haven’t started using it yet because I like the one I had. I truly like to use things up to the very end, before I toss it out. I wasn’t finished with it, and to me, the crumbs of eyeshadow still had purpose. Did I mention, I still hadn’t used it all the way up? Check out that photo. So much left to use. I liked the broken pieces.

But the Lord said to me, there’s a new one for you. Let go and make room for what I have in store for you. Eyeshadow was what he used to speak into my Spirit this morning and refer to something in particular. Let go, I have brand new grandiose _______ (fill in the blank with something/someone/some dream) in store for you. He is wanting to gift to me a replacement for the broken pieces with something brand new, not broken or damaged or crumbled.

SOAK on THAT for a second.

Now, I know you can make spiritual analogies about God using the broken pieces, etc. but this wasn’t the lesson He had in store for me today. He is telling me I am holding on to something broken. And the broken thing I was holding on to, He knew I was thinking I could still make something of it, damaged and crumbled. He knows me. He knows us. He knows the desires of our heart. He also knows the plans He has for us – to give us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). 

So today I’m tossing my broken eyeshadow palette and going to start using my new one (as pictured below). As I spiritually dump the “thing” or “dream” or “relationship” that’s broken and await what He has in store for me that is brand new and not damaged. 

Here’s some scripture that helps me process the truth of what He’s teaching me.

• Isaiah 43:19: For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

• Luke 5:36 Then Jesus gave them this illustration: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment”.

• Luke 5:37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins.

• Matthew 9:16 “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before.”

• Matthew 9:17 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”