In Japan when a piece of pottery breaks // Instead of throwing it away, it is repaired // With lacquer and gold // Placed between the cracks to hold // All of the broken pieces together // Embracing and embellishing all of its brokenness // And seeing the blessing in the building something new // To restore // Rendering it more // Valuable than it was before // This art of breaking, blessing, and building is known as // Kintsugi. (Hear Glenn’s entire spoken work piece here.)

So, here’s the invitation

As you listen in on the offerings of this NEXT Church gathering, pay attention. Where are you experiencing brokenness in your own life? Where are you feeling it in your body? In what ways are you crying out to God? Where are you in deep need of God’s tender grace? God’s blessing? God’s hope? How are you being challenged and inspired to build anew? To be restored? How is the recognition of your own brokenness and need for God’s mercy shaping the way you enter into the building, engage in ministry and encounter others?

If we were in person, we would have gold body paint out and invite you to explore where it is in your body that you are holding brokenness. It doesn’t necessarily mean it is a bodily pain, but as an integrated people, we know that our bodies, our emotions, our spirits are interconnected. We cannot separate one from the other. Maybe it is in your back, for the weight you have been carrying. Maybe it is in your hands, for the weariness of grinding day and night. Maybe it is in your feet, for the years of marching and advocating for racial justice. Maybe it is in your eyes, for things you have seen and cannot unsee. Maybe it is in your mind, for the ways society has sought to break you down into thinking you are disposable. Maybe it is pain that you cannot explain.

Grab a photo of yourself or do this on your own body. Take some paint or a marker (it does not need to be gold) and draw some lines, as if you are putting the broken pieces back together. Write a bit about what this means for you. As you do so, we pray that the lines would be a reminder of God’s grace entering into the cracks, the wounds, to bring healing and hope. Like the art of Kintsugi, each of our stories is unique and to be honored, even in the brokenness. Our hope in the sharing of testimonies is that we will be reminded of our shared humanity and our shared need for God’s tender grace, and that it will ground us in humility and kindness as we work together in pursuit of God’s justice. Please share your stories and images at aloha@chopsueyroots.com and we will continue to update this online gallery and link to it via NEXT Church’s social media. Our deepest thanks for entrusting your stories to us and to one another. May we hold them in the sacredness that they are.