We are living in this cute little second story apartment in the Republic of Georgia this month. It’s been great! Something that caught my eye today was this little store.
Second hand. I was just looking at those words and suddenly realized I often place myself or others in the Goodwill box. You know the box. The box that sits by the front door or in the back of the car for months. It is full of things that aren’t totally beyond repair but in your eyes are pretty worthless. You are taking them to Goodwill because you don’t want to be wasteful and even though you can’t imagine who would want the things in that box, you hope somebody will find a use for them.
When we are strolling through Goodwill looking at the second hand items nobody else wanted we have our critical lenses on. Every tiny hole, sign of excessive stretching, or paint stain is enough for us to wonder aloud “I wonder how this ended up on the shelf”.
We do that to people. If we see them struggling or know of a mistake they’ve made, the tendency is strong to inadvertently assume that God can’t use them in the same way He could use a “new” person. But we know He loves everybody, so we assume He will find sooooomething for them to do that is serving the kingdom.
When I sat down to write this it kinda made me mad to think about doing this to somebody else with our thoughts. But then it hit me.
We do this to ourselves more than anything.
We are ALL created in God’s image. Even ourselves. So, precious soul, you aren’t broken and you aren’t a second hand item. Don’t let anybody, including yourself, tell you otherwise.
