Broken Fragments

Psychiatrist Victor Frankl had opportunity to flee Austria before the Nazi took over. "Should I go or should I stay" he pondered. He wished for a sign from heaven. On his father's  table he saw a broken piece of marble. His father had saved it from the ruins of the synagogue burnt down by the Nationalist Socialists. His father had saved the fragment because one guilded letter was inscribed on it, representing one of the Ten Commandments: 

"Which one?" Frankl asked.

The letter "Ka" for Kabbed, Honour: representing the fifth commandment.

"Honour thy father and mother that thy days may be long upon the land".

Frankl obeyed, endured the concentration camps and lived to tell us how (and why!)

(thanks to Audrey for Man's search for meaning)

On Sunday PIC told us about Alexander Papaderos:

"When I was a small child, during the war, we were very poor and we lived in a remote village. One day, on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place.

"I tried to find all the pieces and put them together, but it was not possible, so I kept only the largest piece. This one. And by scratching it on a stone I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine -- in deep holes and crevices and dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find.

"I kept the little mirror, and as I went about my growing up, I would take it out in idle moments and continue the challenge of the game. As I became a man, I grew to understand that this was not just a child's game but a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of light. But light -- truth, understanding, knowledge -- is there, and it will only shine in many dark places if I reflect it.

"I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this world -- into the black places in the hearts of men -- and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of my life."

Take home message:

We may not be ready to serve as God wants us to until we allow him to carve his commandments into us, break us into pieces, pick out the right piece, shape that piece by grinding rubbing against the rock.

Only then are we ready to shine his light into dark places, even dark places where we ourselves have traveled.