LEFTOVERS
Are They Being Wasted?
~ He is the God Who salvages all things and allows nothing to go to waste ~
January 16th, 2023
unDONE
Isaiah 43:18-19, ‘”Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”’ (NIV)
There is not one person who does not have a past. The day after we are born, we already have one. The past is not something many wish to relive or revisit, and in fact, most people spend the entirety of their lives attempting to forget, change and undo their pasts. But, like we talked about last week, there are seldom opportunities in this life where we are given do-overs. I don’t know if you have ever noticed, but if you ever run across someone who tends to spend a lot of time in their past, it typically is to relive glory days, recount embellished stories and larger-than-life renditions of a previous hallowed memory.
We are broken people. We are busted ourselves or we tend to caretake someone who is shattered or we are heading toward or coming out of some kind of ruins. For some, there is great pain inscribed amongst the fissures. If it weren’t for the cracks in our façade, however; the light of Jesus inside of us could not be seen as easily. It is possible that someone who claims to not have a story or who seems to have it all put together very likely is hiding behind a past from which they’ve done their best to bury or camouflage themselves with tall tales and masks of perfection and appearing disengaged.
I am no longer fearful of my scars, but it has taken me all this time to finally reach here, the place where I know my woundedness has grown me and also benefitted me and others, as well as, I pray, brought glory to my God. Once upon not a long time ago, I was terrified the next thread of my disguise would be yanked, and within moments, I would find myself unraveled and come undone and exposed, bare before others, all of the messiness hung out for everyone to see. But God. But God had a plan and a purpose for me. But God spoke life into dry bones and caused them to rise up and lift arms and dance for Him. But God chose the foolish things of my world to confound the wise of others (1 Cor 1:27a). But God chose not to waste any of my leftovers, to take what Satan meant for harm to be used for His glory, to salvage the damage I caused, and also what had been done to me, to repair my broken pieces and make something new and life-giving, not decayed and death-rendering. Beautiful you, if you’ll let Him, He will do something new with you, and in you too. He wants to! He is doing a new thing! Step out of your past and into your future.
John 6:12-13, ‘When the people had eaten their fill, He said to His disciples, “Gather the LEFTOVERS so nothing is wasted.” They went to work and filled twelve large baskets with LEFTOVERS from the barley loaves.’ (MSG)
