I love working in the yard. Every year when it looks as if winter is over, I can be found shopping for pots, soil, seeds, plants and almost anything related to gardening. I love watching the different stages plants go through while they grow.
Often I use rain water we collected in this blue tub to water my garden. The plastic watering can hangs at the ready on the side of the tub.
After several seasons of facing the elements of weather, the plastic has finally cracked. Unless I find a way and take time to repair it, it no longer is able to fulfill the work it was designed for. I can choose to toss it as trash. Or I can find a way to repair or repurpose it for use.
Humans are much like my watering can. Life often has left its weathered effect. But that doesn’t change the fact that the Creator had an original purpose in mind.
As leaders and mentors, it’s important to not focus on the cracks in someone’s life and cast them aside as if they are no longer useful. Instead, we need to find ways to help them be mended and placed back in line with a purpose. Maybe realignment puts them in a different place than before the brokenness. But that place will still benefit from having them present.
Christ didn’t see a poor widow. He saw a faithful servant. He didn’t see an adulterer. He saw a woman broken, battered and scared. He didn’t toss aside the one who watched His followers die. He repurposed that man to help establish the early church.
Today, let’s not look at what is seen on the outside of people. Let’s not point out the scar but instead look to God and have Him reveal their new purpose – and our part to help get them there.
In Secret Strength 