From the archives:
I have been fascinated by the concept of repurposing ever since our weekend visit to Mineral Point, Wisconsin about three years ago.
It was a bleak time of year, like now, in the middle of February when we made that trip. We surprisingly discovered that many of the shops and galleries in town were closed for the winter. Our home for a couple of days was built in 1877 and only recently turned into a very unique apartment. Its furnishings were bizarre and beautiful cast offs and rare finds from years gone by.very
It was very quiet with little going on in town. In the apartment we had no internet, no TV, and 140-year-old, two-foot thick limestone walls. It was quiet as a tomb. We did discover a few open galleries in town and more in nearby Galena, Illinois. In our journey, we saw old buildings that became homes to new businesses, entrepreneurs who were striking out on their own in the midst of historical structures, and art created from old, formally useless materials.
Repurposing speaks to me because it reminds of….
Grace. We all have some old junk in our lives. We are not proud of it. It’s rusty, nasty, useless stuff that reminds us of wasted seasons of life, mistaken decisions, our own disastrous selfishness, and tragedies we barely survived. Sometimes we feel as though it should doom us. Yet, I believe God uses it in unimaginable ways to make us into someone uniquely beautiful and purposeful. If we grasp that it will make us laugh and smile because it is so wonderfully absurd and amazing.
Hope. If grace looks back, hope looks forward. Hope allows us to shift gears. It allows to see things in a new light. Hope gives us purpose and a reason to get out of bed. It captures our imagination and unfolds new beauty. Hope turns a new positive page in our life every day.
Art. For most of my life, I had little use for art. That’s what makes this era so much fun for me, I see art everywhere. I don’t just see it, I experience it. I see it in good writing, acting, photography, sunsets, the creation of God, and the creations of man. Repurposing people is how God’s creates art.
I am embarking on a journey of repurposing, actually creating some things. We’ll see how it goes, but I am already having fun with it.
Don’t fret over the junk pile, hand it over to the master artist. You are his amazing work of art.
Originally published February 20, 2018.
