I love to throw stuff away.

I get nerd-happy when I clean out a closet and get to thrown stuff out.  My husband doesn’t get it and my extended family refuses to give me things unless they know exactly what I plan to use it for.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle? What is that?

By contrast, my friend Tabea is a black-belt at being green.  She does the whole reduce, reuse, recycle and then if none of those work, she’ll re-purpose.

Tabea’s house is packed full of knick-knacks and there isn’t a corner of her house that isn’t interesting.  Her creativity is endless because she doesn’t see things for what they are but what they could be.  Goodwill is her personal heaven and she can spend hours – no lie – HOURS in a thrift store.

In some countries, I believe they call that torture.

I am a victim of our disposable culture.  I can’t help it, the smell of new anything is pretty intoxicating.  Maybe I’ve been couped up in the house too long this winter but these days I even get excited about boxes of new diapers.  It’s the idea of something new, the anticipation of what’s to come – okay, so maybe not so much the ‘what’s to come’ part when diapers are involved.  But thankfully, I’m not God.  He’s a little more old-school.

God, like Tabea, takes our, “coulda” “shoulda”, “woulda’s” and upcycles them into something beautiful.

“We know that all things work together for the  good of those who love God: those who are called according to his purpose.”

Romans 8:28

He doesn’t work all things together for the good of those who live their lives perfectly, who live in immaculately clean homes, pay all of their bills on time, say all of the right things, work out, eat right, read their Bible for 5 hours every day, don’t smoke, etc, etc, etc.

He works all things together for the good of those who love him.

All of your mistakes, all of your missed opportunities – they are not wasted.  Your life is not disposable in his hands.  It’s easy to forget that you truly are unique, but there are 7 billion people in the world and none of them is you.  Pretty amazing.  Your story, your smile, your struggles.  You are one of a kind.  Rare.  There is no one quite like you, not in the whole world and no one can hold that place reserved for you in God’s heart.