This was my 2nd year attending the Veritas Conference in Boston and just like last year, I really enjoyed it. The top highlights were walking around with the team on Saturday, getting cannolis and freezing our faces off in single digit weather, and having really cool small group discussions with people from other schools. Shout out group 9!
Personally, my biggest takeaway was learning about KINTSUGI (which is more well-known than I thought...I clearly missed this!). Kintsugi is the Japanese art practice of taking broken pieces of pottery and repairing them with gold or other valuable minerals, accentuating their fractures.
This reminded me of the passage from 2 Corinthians 4:6-11 which mentions "jars of clay."
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
We are like little broken jars of clay and the scars we carry in/on our bodies are a testimony of God's grace. He is constantly creating and refining us anew in our brokenness with the gold that we are so undeserving of. And like in verse 9, we are broken but not destroyed as Jesus is the eternal life that is coursing through us and sustaining us.
Whether it is sustainment through a Boston winter or another semester at Emory, I hope to embody a mindset of KINTSUGI, understanding that brokenness through trials is something that can be beautiful. It is okay to not be totally okay and healing is more powerful and valuable than remaining stagnant as the same piece of clay we started out as.
Behind the scenes of our chilly, fruitful weekend in Boston for #VW2023!
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