Ready for Repurposing?

My life is a good example of what my guest Michelle Rayburn has to share today. We all have bad experiences and hurts in our lives. Whether we allow God to work in, through, and with them is up to us.

At the age of 42 I started life over. And piece by piece God has created a new me. I use my skill as a writer to encourage and teach other writers so they in turn can share what God has done in their lives and shine the light of God into a dark world. Are you …

Ready for Repurposing? by Michelle Rayburn

I love trash to treasure and shabby chic decorating. In the decorating world, I would describe repurposing as the process of giving a worn out or abandoned object a new purpose—usually something imaginative and clever—despite it being too broken for its original use. One of my favorite repurposed possessions is the vintage bicycle I have in my flowerbed. The tires are flat and the gears shot, but it holds a basket of flowers in its rusty “arms” and the whimsical presence makes me smile.

Upcycling is similar, yet different. It’s a trendy word referring to the process of taking something destined for the trash or the recycling bin, and transforming it into something more fabulous than it ever was before. The drama of the transformation makes upcycling gratifying. My favorite upcycled project is an old French door that I turned into a pretty chalkboard and memo center.

I enjoy trash to treasure projects mostly because my decorating style is a metaphor—a picture of what life really is like for a Christian. You see, God takes the shabby stuff that we’d rather toss out of our history and makes it chic when he shows us that not every bad thing we experience is junk. Sometimes, some of life’s greatest disappointments can be precious treasures from God.

I like to think of it as a life repurposed and upcycled. Repurposed, because God doesn’t waste any opportunity to use our trials for his glory, and his purpose is always better. Upcycled because it’s a life where the awful can become awesome, and heartbreak can turn into a heartwarming testimony of God’s great grace.

This life is an adventure. It’s an opportunity to laugh. To cry. To be real about our feelings and emotions. To let God be the artist and we the moss-covered pottery that needs new paint and a new purpose.

As I write this, I’m looking at a bouquet of red roses on my desk which were given to me by my seventeen-year-old son. It doesn’t matter to me that he pulled them from a dumpster, or that they had been tossed there because they’d passed their shelf life in the store. What matters is that they are beautiful to me and that he plucked them from the trash with the intent of bringing me joy. They made it through without getting crushed by the other garbage. I peeled off a few withered petals and put them in a fluted vase. They are perfectly stunning with no evidence that someone had wasted their beauty in a dumpster.

Are there some experiences in your life you’d rather toss in the dumpster? Could there be some beauty under the withered outside petals? Are you ready to discover the repurposed and upcycled life?

Guest post excerpted from The Repurposed and Upcycled Life: When God Turns Trash to Treasure by Michelle Rayburn. Posted with permission from the author. No part of this post may be reproduced or reposted without permission from the author. Copyright 2012.

How has God worked in your life to repurpose what you would rather “toss in the dumpster”? Share in the comments below.

ABOUT MICHELLE RAYBURN

Michelle wants to help you connect the dots between faith, creativity, and everyday life and discover the joy of finding God in the most unexpected places. She has written more than 100 articles for publication, and this is her debut book. Her writing has also appeared in Christian Communicator, Focus on the Family, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Vista, Queen of the Castle Magazine, and more. She has also written several Bible studies for ChristianBibleStudies.com, and does freelance editing and copy writing.

BOOK REVIEW by Debra L. Butterfield

Who among us hasn’t been plagued at one time or another by something–fear, doubt, a bad childhood, mistakes or failures, etc.?

In The Repurposed and Upcycled Life, Michelle Rayburn does a masterful job of examining the issues that plague women and then helping them to “clear out the trash.” She frames every chapter with candid examples from her own life, and then decorates that frame with how God can repurpose our difficulties.

I love Michelle’s sense of humor. I laughed out loud quite often as I read, causing a few raised eyebrows from onlookers. (I read a lot in waiting rooms.) Michelle uses her humor well in communicating the difficult issues discussed in Repurposed. Here are three chapter titles to illustrate my point: Tooth Fairy Decay, Dust Bunnies and Bad Hare Hair Days, and Chicken Coup for the Soul.

Included in every chapter is a “Getting Personal” section that encourages a deeper look into the Bible, and a creativity section with with a craft idea often crafted with recycled items. A good read for all women, but especially fun for those who like crafting. A marvelous example of Romans 8:28 in action.