He Restores My Soul
WRITTEN BY: Christopher D. Kanas (Customer Testimonial of Nook & Cranny Co)
“He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” Psalm 23:3
We have been in South Carolina now for over one month. It’s been a journey; physically, mentally, and spiritually. Moving, I’ve discovered, breaks things. The dresser in the pictures above is a piece of furniture my wife and I have had since we got married. (Now going on year 24) It has been moved from SoCal to NorCal and then 4–5 times as we lived in various homes in the Auburn area for 20 years. Finally, in the coast to coast move, amidst all the sharp corners and bumps in the road, it finally gave way and busted. The top buckled under the weight on the boxes stacked on top and the drawers fell to the floor. When the movers here in Carolina showed me, I was pretty sad. It’s more sentimental now to me than anything else. Furniture has this odd way of becoming family.
After evaluating the damage, I noticed that it was internally broken, but the exterior was still in decent shape. So being that the Carolinas are the furniture capital of the USA, I figured there must be folk (to use a southern word, hah) around here that specialized in furniture repair. After searching a bit, there was a person, Travis, that would come to your house and fix your furniture on location. What I didn’t know at that time was what a spiritual blessing this would become. Travis looked at the dresser, took a few seconds to study it, and then said, “yep, I got this. You see what we’re going to do is……” He then went through the plan of restoration.
Myself, being a dentist, I have always had an interest in tools, especially detail tools, since, well, that’s what I do. So I wanted to watch and observe how Travis was going to repair this. I wanted to see a craftsman at his game. I wasn’t disappointed. Travis immediately brought out tools that I hadn’t seen before but were perfect for the applications he needed. I sat back, enjoying watching a carpenter thinking things out, adjusting and improvising, and not only restoring the dresser, but in all truth, making it stronger than it had ever been before. (Take that! Ikea, hah) I realized I enjoyed trusting another person who knew how to fix what was broken.
As Travis and I continued talking, enjoying each other’s company, he told me he was a pastor as well. He pastors at hospices and convalescent homes, saying his congregation is in wheelchairs, how he’s baptized people 80 years of age. He’s talked with elderly missionaries with stories that blew my mind. Lepers that had lost limbs being brought to services in wheelbarrows, their testimonies changing lives. Lepers bringing people to God. Travis told me how God had saved him from being a racist, how he had been broken, and God restored him from a racist upbringing and being taught other people were “lesser” than him because of their skin color. I no longer saw the man fixing my dresser, but a man, a broken man, who now reaches out and helps fix other broken people.
It takes broken people reach broken people.
How do we know we can trust God? God broke Himself for us, that how. Rather than being some celestial being untouched, out of reach, god that we are required to serve. God came down as human for the purpose of being broken. To face temptation, to face racism, to face self-serving, to struggle (Take this cup, nevertheless, Your Will be done)
Perhaps the biggest indication is the two word verse: Jesus Wept. It broke Him to watch the people he loves having to endure pain for a bigger purpose. Jesus understands brokenness.
And the irony is, we as humans fight being broken, we don’t like vulnerability. We like self sufficiency. Yet that is the very thing that keeps us from being fixed, internally. We may look ok, (heck, some people are gorgeous on the outside) but internally is where our souls reside. And that is where the brokenness and fixing comes. Jesus didn’t do this all by Himself, look how much scripture is written about Jesus praying.
God. Praying. Think about that. Maybe that gives us an indication of what prayer really is. Communication. It is said what really anguished Jesus was not the physical death on the cross, but His separation from his Father, the loneliness of loss of communication. (Why do you forsake me?) It’s what I like in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ”, seeing that single teardrop come down from the heavens. God the Father, weeping.
Experiencing pain for the purpose of being able to restore all who would reach out desiring to be fixed. God Himself selflessly allowing Himself to be broken, for us. May we all trust our carpenter, Jesus Christ, to fix our brokenness. He has the tools we don’t possess. He can make stronger than we were ever before. May we all make that call.
Christopher D. Kanas
Husband, Father, Pediatric Dentist, Author, lover of nature and music, Follower of Christ.
David Travis Fowler | Owner of Nook & Cranny Company | www.NookandCrannyCo.com