Are you still trying to figure out what went wrong with your life?
Was it a job loss that started the downward spiral you feel helpless to escape? Was it divorce? Was it abuse? Perhaps it was the death of a loved one, someone without whom your world no longer makes sense?
Life-changing losses slash across our souls and leave gaping wounds, wounds whose scars imprint our once-perfect world as boldly as a jet's bright contrail cuts across a perfectly blue sky. Broken, lost, and scarred, how do we begin again?
Patti Roberts-Thompson and Carole Lynn King consider this question through the lens of the extraordinary personal experiences of Patti's memoir, The Language of Scars, grounding life lessons in solid biblical truths. The Language of Scars, a language of lived wisdom, emerges in our conversations when suffering, doing its perfect work, brings us to humility. Humility brings us to redemption, and redemption brings us to the river of Grace, where healing washes us and others as it flows over and through our lives.
In ancient Japan, an art form known as Kintsugi sprung from a legendary story of the appeasement of an angry Shogun. The Shogun's favorite teacup was broken to pieces by a careless servant. To save the servant's life, the artisans of the court used liquid gold to glue the pieces back together, in hopes the cup would be even better than before. After gluing it back together with gold, the artisans burnished the cup to a fine glow, and discovered gleaming gold designs that could never be repeated or copied. The cup had become a one-of-a-kind piece of art. The Shogun was delighted, and a new art form was born.
It is the same with us and the Language of Scars. Kintsugi creates art from what is broken in us. God's golden glue gleams along our fault lines, creating an intricate design unique to every restored life. When we bring our broken pieces to the Creator and Redeemer of our souls, our broken places become an intersection with grace, a place where His golden love and healing put us back together again, even better than before.
"I am one of the Lord's many pieces of Kintsugi," Patti says. "Are you? Let Christ have your broken places, and he will make them gleam with His light. Kintsugi of the soul belongs to all who seek it.
Are you ready? This is what redemption looks like. It is Christ who heals, Christ who makes our scars beautiful and increases our value to others through them. Let Him create art from your broken places; Let Him teach you the Language of Scars.
Patti Roberts Thompson - singer, minister, author, and producer - was the daughter-in-law of Oral Roberts and the lead female singer of Oral Roberts Ministries for nearly a decade. She performed on the ministries' national television specials, daily 30-minute programs, and did countless live ministry events. Throughout her early career, she also recorded nearly 20 best-selling vocal albums and did hundreds of live performances, literally all over the world. But after 10 1/2 years of marriage to Oral's son and heir-apparent protégé, Richard Roberts, Patti and Richard went through a grueling divorce. The divorce was more than the death of a marriage; it was also the death of her decade in ministry with OREA, and her career. Her life began a dizzying freefall from the glittering heights of religious show-biz fame to the alleys of obscurity where former Christian celebrities find themselves, after tumbling off the stage. Patti's journey back from these dark places was not a straight line, but today her life has come full circle. She tells the tale of her journey and the things she learned along the way in these memoirs, The Language of Scars. Her story is one of redemption, resilience, and restoration that offers wisdom and hope for all.
Carole Lynn King, an award-winning writer, author, editor, and educator, is a graduate of both Oral Roberts University and Pittsburg State University. She brings a lifetime of writing experience to The Language of Scars project as the book's co-writer, developmental editor, and publishing assistant. Like Patti, Carole married a fellow ORU student who was an ordained minister, and launched into a visionary ministry together with him. "Dream no small dreams here," Oral preached, and ORU students everywhere took up that challenge. But after 25 years of marriage, visionary ministry, and four children, Carole's husband also walked out the door. Like Patti, she found that his exit took not only her marriage but also her ministry and career. Her 10-year co-founder's role with the Christian counseling center she and her husband co-led evaporated overnight. The divorce was devastating and disorienting, but equally devastating was the loss of her life's work. With four hurting teenagers to raise as a single mom, there was no looking back, however. Carole returned to writing. a skill she had cultivated since childhood. Her writing proved to be successful. As of 2020, Carole has published over 500 articles, won multiple writing awards; served as a business journal editor-in chief; co-written and published eight books, conducted original research for a book on business culture, produced web content and worked extensively in marketing communications. She is also an educator and adjunct college instructor of humanities, English, and writing. She obtained her master's in communication at PSU in 2016.
