Patsy Clairmont - All Cracked Up: Experiencing God in the Broken Places

Patsy Clairmont

ALL CRACKED UP

2006 by Patsy Clairmont. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotation in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published by W Publishing Group, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The New King James Version (NKJV), copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. Publishers. Other Scripture quotations are taken from the following: The King James Version of the Bible (KJV). The Message (MSG), copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Clairmont, Patsy.
All cracked up / Patsy Clairmont.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8499-0047-6
1. Christian womenReligious life. I. Title.
BV4527.C5325 2006
248.8'43dc22

2005035029

Printed in the United States of America
06 07 08 09 10 QW 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my Porch Pals
Nicole Johnson, Marilyn Meberg, Luci
Swindoll, Sheila Walsh, and Thelma Wells
and the president of Women of Faith, Mary
Graham, who make it a habit to shout their
support, even when Im all cracked up

Contents

Part 1
Cracked Pots

Glass, china and reputation are easily cracked,
and never well mended.
Benjamin Franklin

Part 2
Wisecrackers

We can learn much from wise words,
little from wisecracks, and less from wise guys.
William Arthur Ward

Part 3
Going Crackers

Change, when it comes, cracks everything open.
Dorothy Allison

I must thank two gifted friends for their involvement with this project:

Janet Grant, everything you touch is better.
Leslie Hurt, I love your passion for learning.

And thank you to my new friend Carolyn Denny, who walks her talk with grace and style.

1
All Cracked Up

O K, not funny! I dont know who spun the dial on my internal compass, but Im not laughing. I just came from the mall, where I misplaced my car in the parking lot; and then, after finding it, I immediately got lost, detouring through three strip malls before careening (not purposely) onto the correct road headed for home. No, there are no strip malls on the way to my house. And no, the mall is not in another town. And yes, I had been there many times.

Ive spent my whole life looking for where I belong. Well, not my whole life, since I spent my younger years following whomever was headed somewhereanywhereuntil I started to have more of a sense of self.

As I became a tad more certain of who I was, I became a little less certain of others choices. This process is called growing a brain, and from the best I can tell, it takes at least half a century, perhaps a little longer. It seems our brains have networks of hairline fractures through which brain cells trickle out and fog and pollution seep in.

So my advice is for us to Spackle. Spackle sounds a lot like sparkle minus the glitz. Its a gluelike substance meant to fill in fracturesvoila! Brain gunk. We put gunk on our hair, so why not our brains?

Actually, all gunk aside, what Ive learned thus far in life (besides never travel alone) is that my internal compass isnt the only thing broken. We also have obvious fissures of the heart, like fractured relationships, weakening moral fiber, and religious disillusionment. I wonder if Spackle comes in vats?

Actually, thats where our Redeemer comes in. We need someone who can fix broken hearts, Spackle our perspective, and even give us a reason to laugh. God sent Jesus as a Redeemer to do just thatto redeem the shards of our lives and create a stained-glass perspective. When we realize were broken and acknowledge Jesus as our Redeemer, then the crushing blows of life do not destroy us; instead, we see through our repaired viewing place the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living (Psalm 27:13). Then we live with hope, we dance more often, we laugh more deeply, and we are not taken by surprise by the fact that life is all cracked up.

I dont have easy answers for the hardships of life, but Id tell you if I did. Of course, I realize an old lady who wanders around a parking lot calling out to her PT Cruiser, Oh, Babycakes! is brain-cell suspect or at least a prime candidate for the home.

In the pages ahead, we will look at some of our heart fractures and see reasons to crack up laughing. The topics are varied, but each chapter is tied to the next by one strand: cracks. Ive included questions to tuck in your heart or to share in a group. The chapters will be short, because I cant think in a straight line very long before wandering off to the mall.

Ive divided this project into three parts: things (Cracked Pots), people (Wisecrackers), and changes (Going Crackers). I created these parts because I need logical order to stay on track and not trot where rabbits scurry. Also, Ive found these three areas fray my last nerve, stretch my reserves, and vie for my focus, strength, and attention.

First, Ive included things, because things regularly crack in our lives. Just think about how much time you spend repairing all the stuff youve gathered around you. In the chapters ahead, we will investigate how damaged goods become prized possessions, how fractures become highlights, and how cracks can actually add value. As we will see in the pages ahead, broken doesnt have to mean unusable. In fact, our brokenness can be the vibrancy that makes us even more valuable. I love that.

Second, Ive included people becausewell, I am one, and also because they play a featured part in our lives. People build us, bamboozle us, baffle us, and bless us. Sometimes we cant live with them, and we certainly werent designed to live without them.

Finally, Ive included change, because it is the door to discovery. We werent meant to be static but dynamic, and dynamics are charged by change. Yet change is not always an easy door to walk through, whether its a crack in the door or the doors wide open. So lets walk through that door together.

As you turn the pages through these stories about things, people, and change, Id love it if you laugh yourself silly and then go live yourself sane. Ive found that even a lively chuckle helps make room for a fresh run at life. So if youre in a good place, come giggle till you jiggle. If youre feeling debilitated, come be tenderly heartened. And if youre somewhere in between, then be preparedwell be laughing one minute and sighing the next.

Its a mystery how life can be both fun and fractured. But there it isall cracked up.

Part 1
Cracked Pots

Glass, china and reputation are easily
cracked, and never well mended.

Benjamin Franklin

2
Brain Fractures

K now what fractures my brain? Numbers. Somehow they just dont tally for me.

It makes me nervous just saying the word