An Opal

From J.E. Tada's More Precious than Silver

The opal owes its beauty to a defect....you and I who have broken hearts are sometimes only conscious of the cracks and fissures. But out of all this God is making an opal heart. We must be broken in ourselves before we can give back the lovely hues of His Light, including the fire, the brilliance. Only when my heart is fractured, full of minute fissures, can God's love enter in and refract His own Light. 

Have you noticed that the people who have the "perfect life", including being the "perfect Christian"...are somehow lacking in something? While that person seems to have everything...they don't. They are missing that certain light. 
When I was in nursing school, it was a requirement to attend some sort of support group. I attended a local Alcohol Anonymous. Those people, while rough around the edges....were some of the nicest people I had ever met. The room was filled with broken hearts, scars, holes miles deep. Yet these people reached out to me, even though I explained this was an assignment for a nursing course. They were kind, concerned, even invited me back, welcoming the fact that all people are broken. Honestly...if I had had the time, I might have. 
We all have our alcohol. It may be work. It may be kids. It may be drugs. There are instances where it is even something to do with church---but we are not doing it for our Lord, but for ourselves...to stop the hurt of all those fissures in our hearts. 
Brokenness is painful---yet our Savior lives! He understands our pain here on earth. Tell Him about what hurts...journal it out. Talk to a friend who has a mature Christian outlook. But still, most importantly, let it go. Give it away to the Lord God, and do not let it fester in your soul. Believe me, before I had my RA and did not lay on a couch for months, I did not know I was still holding onto hurts. I thought I had let them go years ago. They were still barely hanging on. A festered sliver in my soul that took deep concentration with a magnifying glass to find. The freedom of having that fissure healed is so freeing.