I love the humorous piece Paul Powell once shared titled “You Know You Are A Redneck If”...
- You have at least one old refrigerator on your front porch.
- You can entertain yourself for more than 15 minutes with a fly swatter.
- Your boat has not left the driveway in 15 years.
- You burn your yard rather than mow it.
- The Salvation Army declines your furniture.
- You offer to give someone the shirt off your back and they don’t want it.
- You have the local taxidermist on speed dial.
- You come back from the dump with more than you took.
- You keep a can of Raid on the kitchen table.
- You keep flea and tick soap in the shower.
- You’ve been involved in a custody fight over a hunting dog.
- You have a rag for a gas cap.
- Your house doesn’t have curtains, but your truck does.
- You wonder how service stations keep their restrooms so clean.
- Your lifetime goal is to own a fireworks stand.
- You have a complete set of salad bowls that all say “Cool Whip” on the side.
- Your working TV sits on top of your non-working TV.
- You’ve used your ironing board as a buffet table.
- You’ve used a toilet brush to scratch your back.
- You think fast food is hitting a deer at 65 mph.
Would that I could write any such! Still, pay particular attention to the eighth assertion: “You come back from the dump with more than you took.” Why do I say this? I’m glad you asked. You see…
My wife and I live a mere four miles from the local “County Convenience Center”. That is the official name for what might normally be termed a “Recycling Center”. For our part, being old school, my wife and I just call it “The Dump”.
Given all this, we elected to forego any weekly garbage collection service. Despite the fact that our son considers us just plain too cheap to pay for anything, we concluded that we have no intention of shelling out a monthly fee to someone to do something that we ourselves can do for barely one third of that cost!
Besides, there are a great many added benefits to going to “the dump”. On more than one occasion, my wife and I have stumbled across a discarded piece of junk or broken furniture that sat awaiting disposition, and upon inquiry, have found that we could indeed take possession of it.
Why does this matter? Because my wife and my daughter have gotten into what I call “junking”. They acquire old pieces of junk furniture and then repurpose them. By this I mean that they clean them up, paint them, and/or appropriately “distress” them for resale at their booth in a local “antique boutique” store.
All of this brings to mind the modern phrase “repurposing”. According to Webster’s Dictionary, to “repurpose” is “to give a new purpose or use to”. To their credit, my wife and daughter have found innumerable ways to do this for what was once deemed useless and discarded furniture.
A case in point… My wife took a standard chest of drawers and removed the bottom three drawers. She then added shelving so as to make this bottom open area a nook, suitable for displaying any number of items. Thereafter, she added a coat of paint and distressed the entire piece accordingly. The result was a masterpiece, which did in fact sell straightaway.
Furniture, of course, is not the only thing that can be repurposed. Nor indeed, is it. Far more important entities have been repurposed. And chief among these are humans being themselves!
You see, long before the repurposing of furniture ever became a thing, the repurposing of human beings was already a thing. What is more, it was a divine thing!
After all, God has a divine purpose for each and every one of us. As the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes (chapter 3, verse 1) states: “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”
And in light of this, whenever we feel that we have been run-down, worn-out, and used-up, we need to remember what) the Lord said to us through His prophet Isaiah (in chapter 43, verse 19): “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
As a run-down, worn-out, and used-up individual (at least from the world’s perspective), I am ever thankful for a Heavenly Father Who sought me out, Who redeemed me, and Who found a whole new future for me!
Clearly, Christ Jesus chose to go to the dump on my behalf. And although it cost Him supremely, He nonetheless came back with something that may have seemed irredeemable. He came back with me. Just as He did with all who needed redemption. That includes you, my friend!
From God’s perspective, we have all now been repurposed. For that, I, my friend, am thankful.
I can only trust that you are as well!
JOKE SOURCE:
Paul Powell, Laugh and Live Longer: Good Humor to Brighten and Lighten Your Life (Tyler, Texas: Self Published, 2008), p. 24.
AVAILABLE ONLINE AT:
https://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/66830.pdf.
WEBSTER’S REFERENCE:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/repurpose.
SCRIPTURES:
- You have at least one old refrigerator on your front porch.
- You can entertain yourself for more than 15 minutes with a fly swatter.
- Your boat has not left the driveway in 15 years.
- You burn your yard rather than mow it.
- The Salvation Army declines your furniture.
- You offer to give someone the shirt off your back and they don’t want it.
- You have the local taxidermist on speed dial.
- You come back from the dump with more than you took.
- You keep a can of Raid on the kitchen table.
- You keep flea and tick soap in the shower.
- You’ve been involved in a custody fight over a hunting dog.
- You have a rag for a gas cap.
- Your house doesn’t have curtains, but your truck does.
- You wonder how service stations keep their restrooms so clean.
- Your lifetime goal is to own a fireworks stand.
- You have a complete set of salad bowls that all say “Cool Whip” on the side.
- Your working TV sits on top of your non-working TV.
- You’ve used your ironing board as a buffet table.
- You’ve used a toilet brush to scratch your back.
- You think fast food is hitting a deer at 65 mph.
Would that I could write any such! Still, pay particular attention to the eighth assertion: “You come back from the dump with more than you took.” Why do I say this? I’m glad you asked. You see…
My wife and I live a mere four miles from the local “County Convenience Center”. That is the official name for what might normally be termed a “Recycling Center”. For our part, being old school, my wife and I just call it “The Dump”.
Given all this, we elected to forego any weekly garbage collection service. Despite the fact that our son considers us just plain too cheap to pay for anything, we concluded that we have no intention of shelling out a monthly fee to someone to do something that we ourselves can do for barely one third of that cost!
Besides, there are a great many added benefits to going to “the dump”. On more than one occasion, my wife and I have stumbled across a discarded piece of junk or broken furniture that sat awaiting disposition, and upon inquiry, have found that we could indeed take possession of it.
Why does this matter? Because my wife and my daughter have gotten into what I call “junking”. They acquire old pieces of junk furniture and then repurpose them. By this I mean that they clean them up, paint them, and/or appropriately “distress” them for resale at their booth in a local “antique boutique” store.
All of this brings to mind the modern phrase “repurposing”. According to Webster’s Dictionary, to “repurpose” is “to give a new purpose or use to”. To their credit, my wife and daughter have found innumerable ways to do this for what was once deemed useless and discarded furniture.
A case in point… My wife took a standard chest of drawers and removed the bottom three drawers. She then added shelving so as to make this bottom open area a nook, suitable for displaying any number of items. Thereafter, she added a coat of paint and distressed the entire piece accordingly. The result was a masterpiece, which did in fact sell straightaway.
Furniture, of course, is not the only thing that can be repurposed. Nor indeed, is it. Far more important entities have been repurposed. And chief among these are humans being themselves!
You see, long before the repurposing of furniture ever became a thing, the repurposing of human beings was already a thing. What is more, it was a divine thing!
After all, God has a divine purpose for each and every one of us. As the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes (chapter 3, verse 1) states: “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”
And in light of this, whenever we feel that we have been run-down, worn-out, and used-up, we need to remember what) the Lord said to us through His prophet Isaiah (in chapter 43, verse 19): “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
As a run-down, worn-out, and used-up individual (at least from the world’s perspective), I am ever thankful for a Heavenly Father Who sought me out, Who redeemed me, and Who found a whole new future for me!
Clearly, Christ Jesus chose to go to the dump on my behalf. And although it cost Him supremely, He nonetheless came back with something that may have seemed irredeemable. He came back with me. Just as He did with all who needed redemption. That includes you, my friend!
From God’s perspective, we have all now been repurposed. For that, I, my friend, am thankful.
I can only trust that you are as well!
JOKE SOURCE:
Paul Powell, Laugh and Live Longer: Good Humor to Brighten and Lighten Your Life (Tyler, Texas: Self Published, 2008), p. 24.
AVAILABLE ONLINE AT:
https://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/66830.pdf.
WEBSTER’S REFERENCE:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/repurpose.
SCRIPTURES: