Ep 79: Broken Crayons (w/ Caleb Sills)

0:00 Hey, good morning and welcome to the show. I'm Daniel Dalp and this is for your Sunday Morning Drive, the short podcast with the goal of providing some motivation, some drive and encouragement on your way to worship and helping you recenter your mind on spiritual things on a hectic Sunday morning. Our guest today is a young man that I have known since he was born, and boy do I feel old saying that. Caleb Sills is 15 and he's a member of the Washington Ave. Church of Christ where he's currently in the youth group. I'm really proud of Caleb. He's got a great heart, a fantastic sense of humor, and he has a passion for Christ. I heard him speak during youth LED worship a few months back and he delivered a great lesson and as I reflected on it, I thought it would make a great episode and he was kind enough to oblige.

0:48 Caleb, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us today. Let's hear them. This is episode 79, Broken crayons. Let's go to church. Are we there yet? Do you ever feel like you don't have purpose, or feel broken or of low significance? Take a crown, for example. I'm sure you've held a crown before, and maybe you got too carried away. And suddenly you hear a familiar snap. And he looked down, and he realized that this crayon that was just connected is now broken in two.

1:33 It seems ruined, doesn't it? It seems like someone might just throw it away and get a new one. Randy Cohen, an American writer, states that there is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. He's saying that even though we often think just because something's broken means it doesn't have purpose anymore. But he's saying that's false because like broken crayons, in our most sorrowful moments, we still have the strength to color things with good using the purpose that God gives to us. Ephesians 2 and verse 10 says for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared ahead of time for us to do. God had a purpose and a plan for us before he even created us. And we know that everything God makes is good.

2:14 So by knowing this, it gives us hope that even though we carry cracks, we know that it shouldn't discourage us, but that it should position us. A man this reminded me of was Inky Johnson. He was a star football player with dreams of making it to the NFL. He lived with 10 people with drug activity literally everywhere, so he wanted to change his family's future. He worked really hard and stayed out of trouble and scouts were already stayed in him as a first round pick. But on September 9th, 2006, Inky went in for a tackle and it looked like a normal everyday play, but it wasn't. That one tackle ended up resulting in severe nerve damage which paralyzed his right arm forever. And just like that, Ingies NFL dreams were over. But he realized that maybe his purpose was bigger than football. He started sharing his stories and teaching others to keep going even when life hits hard.

3:03 One of his quotes is you don't have to be great to get started, but you do have to get started to be great. Inky didn't start out great, but his motive to keep going, not in football, but in his redemption, that's what made him great and in that he inspired millions of people. You see, reflecting this spiritually, God doesn't 'cause every bad thing, but He can use all of them to strengthen your faith, make you a better person, and help others learn through you because of the purpose that God gives to you. You see, when these things happen, it feels like life is over sometimes, but it's not. It just means that God has a different plan for you. And it's our choice if we want to do nothing with it or use it as an opportunity for redemption. Because sometimes it's the broken times in life that bring us to show our most powerful purpose. And the choice is yours.

3:56 So let me ask you, what are you going to do with it? Caleb shared some great thoughts with us for our Sunday morning drive. Now it's time to hear yours. Our discussion questions for this week are, do we find our purpose in serving God? In our most broken moments? Do we still seek God's purpose? And how can we tell others of the wholeness that comes from serving God?