I’ve heard these words before (when I learned of a beautiful Japanese practice with pottery), but I had to look them up because I don’t speak Japanese and wanted to make sure I had it correct. The words are Kintsugi (golden joinery) and kintsukuroi (golden repair): both describe mending broken pottery with gold so that something old and broken gains new life, and the gold makes beautiful designs unique to each piece. The art of fortifying something someone else would’ve thrown out with a precious medal has been celebrated all over the world for centuries. In this, this Japanese custom has taught all of us to give broken things a chance. The verse for this entry speaks of the faith that God also sees potential beauty in broken things and gives them new life.

Post from June 19, 2023.

“👟 RSD 1147 ✅ Today’s Verse: “Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for You are the One I praise.” — Jeremiah 17:14

The Message translation is, “God, pick up the pieces. Put me back together again.” Jeremiah was a prophet; he did his best to live righteously (praying, doing right by people, trying to help where he could…good stuff), and God would give him a heads up on things to try to help people out. Seeking God and His guidance is not something everyone practices, so God sends people to lead us and guide us on our way back to Him (ergo helping us to take better care of ourselves and our futures). So, Jeremiah—he’s was one of the leaders/guiders. Here’s the thing: he had to give his community some bad news. Following God isn’t a choice everyone makes. The problem with doing your own thing and not listening to things like your conscience or reason (or divine guidance) is that we all have limited understanding of things, and we might not make the best decisions for ourselves (you know, doing things we shouldn’t be doing, giving into greed and selfishness).

Yeah, people can do this a lot without major consequences (and, I don’t mean the “great flood” kind—I mean natural (really I mean “man-made”)) consequences of our actions (e.g. cheating—on a test will flunk you, on your taxes will incarcerate you, on your job productivity will leave you unemployed, on your cable/internet company (you know, steal your neighbor’s cable) will land you with a flaming bag of dog poo on your porch…not to mention the company will probably disconnect your cable, and who wants to be without internet for long enough to get back into their good graces?). You get the idea. So, the people in Jeremiah’s day, for the most part, were going wayyyy off script. Their natural consequence? Well, the Babylonians didn’t much care for them, wanted their land and their stuff, and these people didn’t play. Jeremiah tried to warn his friends and neighbors and even leaders and people in the community that they needed to course-correct because they were setting themselves up for ruin. It’s not popular advice, especially if people aren’t so mad about how things are going for them personally. He’s the kid who’s going to warn you against sharing the homework answers in the group chat (either you’re going to get caught, or you’ll flunk the test…both not good), but everyone thinks he’s just being a “goody-goody” (or a buzz kill). Even the religious leaders were treating him like the aforementioned flaming bag of dog poo. (I use the simple examples of community meanness here, but the more serious examples include the fact that some people imprisoned and even plotted to kill Jeremiah—he got all of it). And, you know what? Jeremiah, even though he was a prophet with these cool gifts from God, was a person too. Being ignored, mistreated, and generally ostracized doesn’t feel good, even if you’re following God, trying to help people, and living your life in such a way that they’ll name a book of the Bible after you. Jeremiah chose to live selflessly, differently from what a lot of other people were doing. Being different has its own rewards, but, when you’re “a sensitive man who [wears] his heart on his sleeve” (as the DailyVerse on the Knowing Jesus website put it), being different can be frustrating and very, very lonely.

If you read on (through verse 18), you can see this very human quality in Jeremiah. NIV translation has the verbiage, “I have not run away from being your shepherd; you know I have not desired the day of despair,” and the Message translation says the heartbreaking, “I never wanted trouble.” At least some of the reference is regarding the prediction of Babylonian conquest (the bad news he was warning everyone about), but he’s also lamenting about his personal struggles. He’s like, “I always tried to do right, honor my calling, and I didn’t quit, even when it got hard.” It doesn’t feel good to be made fun of and ignored (and plotted against—I mean this guy couldn’t catch a break). It doesn’t feel good to do the harder thing because it’s the right thing to do, and it seems like it’s all for not. You can keep doing the right thing and still feel like you’re losing. It wears on you. It hurts. God knows all of this and wants us to lean on Him when we feel…just tired of doing good. Not that we’re going to go rogue or anything, but being tired is human, and it’s ok. The right thing, by the way, is never a waste of energy; good work will combine with other good work to do more than we can imagine. But, God knows it doesn’t always seem that way to us…or feel that way. Here, God provides a “go-to” for this situation: Jeremiah asks for God’s help to continue doing His work, to continue doing the next right thing, to continue doing good. I mean—Jeremiah’s still leading and guiding us in 2023, so I think he was onto something.

I found a prayer for this verse on Daily Prayer Guide (dot net):
“Healer God, I come before you broken. I’m beaten down, tired, and empty. I ask for you to heal me. Heal my mind, my body, and my spirit. I love you and know you are the source of everlasting life. Give me confidence and strength. Amen.””