One Purpose

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Matthew 22:37

One of the things I really enjoy is the Art of Repurposing. In case you haven’t heard of it, it is simply taking an item and giving it a different purpose. I love observing people’s creativity in taking what is seemingly junk and turning it into something cleverly pragmatic. Here is one of my attempts at the art. I used old faucets as hooks in the kid’s bathroom to help keep wet towels off the floor!

Repurposing
Repurposing old faucets

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Some have made a lucrative business out of the art.  Check out these ingenious items.

Repurposing
Old Garden Rake Extraordinaire

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Repurposing
Coal Miners Cart

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Repurposing
Truck Spring Stools

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Interestingly there is another pastime which also involves using things not for the purpose they were intended but I don’t recommend this. It could be dangerous!

Man's purpose
Iron as a hot plate--as well as other items creatively used!

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Man's purpose
Weed Wacker as boat engine!

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This one takes the cake!

Riding Lawnmower lifted by a crane to cut hedges

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No wonder manufacturers have to put outlandish warnings and disclaimers on their product packaging. The following warnings may seem funny until you realize there are people out there who actually do these crazy things!

    • A toilet brush with a tag that says “Do not use for personal hygiene”
    • Curling Iron: “Warning: This product can burn your eyes.” (Oh, the price we pay for curly lashes…)
    • Electric Range: “Stepping or sitting on the door of this range can result in serious injuries and also cause damage to the range.”
    • Toaster Oven: Do not dry wet sneakers in your toaster oven
    • Dog leash: Do not use as a child restraint
    • Liquid Plummer:  Warning: Do not reuse the bottle to store beverages.
    • Dremel Electric Rotary Tool: This product not intended for use as a dental drill.
    • Bowl Fresh: Safe to use around pets and children, although it is not recommended that either be permitted to drink from toilet.
    • Earplugs: These ear plugs are nontoxic, but may interfere with breathing if caught in windpipe
    • Mattress: Warning: Do not attempt to swallow
    • Triops Fish Food: Warning: Not for human consumption
    • Children’s Superman Costume: Wearing of this garment does not enable you to fly.
    • Microwave Oven: Do not use for drying pets.
    • Electric Cattle Prod: For use on animals only.
    • Silly Putty: Do not use as ear plugs.
    • Electric Thermometer: Do not use orally after using rectally

One might think it wouldn’t take great intellect to realize that using things for which they were not intended could prove to be at best, futile and at worst, hazardous. But interestingly enough, we, like the smartest man who ever lived, spend much of our life doing just that. In the Book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon tells of his journey looking for purpose in life. He looked for purpose in knowledge and education (Eccl 1:13-18) but found it meaningless, a chasing after the wind. He looked for purpose in pleasure, alcohol, entertainment and sex (Eccl 2:1-3, 2:10) and found these too, to be unfulfilling. He then looked for purpose in projects, achievements and the acquiring of things (Eccl 2:4-8). All this left him empty.

But finally, after all his searching, at the end the book he writes, “Here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.” (Eccl 12:13). The literal Hebrew for “is the duty of all mankind”  is the equivalent of “This is what man is made for.” And the “fear God” is not the cowering fear of someone who has been abandoned in a meaningless life but the reverent submission of one who has found reconciliation with his Creator.  When Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment, He replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37)

I don’t know if you are like me. But sometimes I catch myself trying to find fulfillment in purposes for which I was not intended.

Heavenly father, help us not to get so busy with projects and work or waste precious time watching movies or TV that we neglect intimate time with you. Help us not to spend precious resources, acquiring things that we don’t need and which only leave us empty. Help everything we do reflect our One Purpose, to love you with everything we are.

May this hymn always be the prayer of our heart. LH

TAKE MY LIFE AND LET IT BE   by Frances Havergal

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice and let me sing
Always, only for my King.
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold
Not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use
Every power as You choose.

Chorus
Here am I, all of me.
Take my life, it’s all for Thee.

Take my will and make it Thine
It shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart it is Thine own
It shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord I pour
At Your feet it’s treasure store
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.

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is an aspiring Bounty Hunter who is always looking for God's Bounty-- His grace and goodness-- in the mundane and melancholy as well as in the miraculous. She is also a wife, mother of four adult children--two with Cerebral Palsy, grandmother and minister of the Gospel. "You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance." Psalm 65:11 NLT

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