The Glow of a Broken Heart

Have you ever held a glow stick? You can shake it. You can wave it around. You can admire its color. But no matter how much you move it, it won’t shine in the dark until you do one thing. You have to break it.

Inside that glow stick are chemicals, separated from one another. They’re full of potential, but nothing happens until there’s a snap. When it breaks, what was hidden inside is released, and suddenly, in the darkness, it begins to glow.

I believe that’s a picture of what God does in our lives.

Inside each one of us, God has placed something sacred: His light, His grace, His Spirit. You may not always see it. You may not always feel it, especially when everything seems fine on the outside. But often, it’s not in our strength that God’s light shines brightest. It’s in our brokenness.

King David understood this truth well. In Psalm 51, he cries out, “The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” David had failed, made painful mistakes, but instead of hiding, he turned toward God. And in that turning, he found forgiveness, healing, and renewal.

So often, we spend our lives trying to stay strong. We try to look polished. We try to convince everyone, and sometimes even ourselves, that everything is fine. We hide our cracks. We cover our wounds. We push through with a smile and say, “I’ve got this.”

But God says, “Bring Me your brokenness. Bring Me your heart just as it is.” Because God doesn’t despise a broken heart. He meets it with compassion. He restores it with love. He fills it with hope.

A glow stick shines in the dark. In the same way, faith often shines most clearly in difficult seasons. Not when life is easy, but when trust replaces fear. Not when everything makes sense, but when we choose to place ourselves in God’s hands anyway.

So if your heart feels broken today, don’t be afraid. Let God do His gentle work. Let Him activate what He already placed inside you. Because when your heart opens before Him, His light shines through you, and even in the darkest places, others will see the glow.