The Kitchen Story - A Guest Post By Sharon Shuler

Photo by Sharon Shuler

The Kitchen Story

By
Sharon Shuler 

As I was pulling weeds in my garden this morning, I realized that for the first time in a really long time, the scars from the devastation caused when we trusted a “Christian” contractor with a major renovation on our house were healed. 

 Now, as I step into each room I see more beauty, which would have never been possible without the destruction our misplaced trust initiated.

Would it be a stretch to say that our bad remodel story is analogous of what trusting God's love & Christ’s life in us to rebuild our brokenness looks like? Rather than discipline or anything else, trusting his relentless love is the only thing that can ever make what’s broken whole and convince us that we're enough. 

The contractor left us with a broken kitchen. He only half painted the walls, broke the granite and took our money so the cabinets and counters are the same, but we can fit more people in the kitchen now! We learned that the people who matter don't mind our brokenness.

When we put our trust in things or people in order to convince us that we’re enough, these things often leave us feeling emptier and looking more broken. Like our broken house, the devastation can be overwhelming when we try to hide it or tackle it alone. It’s hard to believe anything beautiful will ever come from our lives when we focus on what’s wrong.

In our case, when we stopped focusing on the rubble, or finding someone to blame and admitted our brokenness, friends showed up with their own stories, albeit less obvious brokenness! With them in our lives, rebuilding became a fulfilling adventure, rather than a reason to find someone to blame. 

Miraculously we found that in the safety of trusted friends, we stumbled into our place in the body of Christ & found what we all want ~ connection. Some call it reaping what was sewn, some call it bad karma, but no matter what caused it, when we took the outstretched hands and admitted we needed others, we found one of the best gifts Christ died to give us ~ the freedom to be broken so we could become whole. 

Maybe I just need to get out of the house more…but this post is already too long for me to say anything about that now.

Sharon Bio:

I'm a wife to Jeff, mom to Nathan, Edith’s daughter and also her caregiver. I teach reading to adults and children with dyslexia and I'm loved and renewed by Abba. I love people and I'm especially drawn to authentic, open hearted, sometimes messy people who have stumbled into the room of grace too. I enjoy cooking with my friends and family, entertaining, gardening and reading. 

 Connect with her at: sharon.shuler@gmail.com

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