---
title: 'J.R. Miller on Spiritual Kintsugi'
type: post
author: 'R. Andrew Myers'
date: 2024-01-24
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2024-j-r-miller-on-spiritual-kintsugi
---

# J.R. Miller on Spiritual Kintsugi

“We ought never to be afraid of God’s providences when they seem to break up our lives and crush our hopes — even to turn us away as Christ’s true disciples from our chosen paths of usefulness and service. God knows what he wants to do with us, how he can best use us and where and in what lines of ministry he would have us serve, or whether he would have us only ‘stand and wait.’ When he shuts one door, it is because he has another standing open for our feet; when he thwarts our plans, it is that his own plan may go on in us and through us; when he breaks our lives to pieces, it is because they will do more for his glory and the world’s good broken and shattered than whole.” — [**J**.**R. Miller**](/authors/james-russell-miller), *Practical Religion: A Help for the Common Days* (1888), p. 304