Restored.

I can't sew. 

....not even a button.  

I have thrown perfectly adorable shirts away because it lost a button.

I can't repair it-so I toss it.  It is no use to me any more.




A few years ago we bought this wonderfully unique house that needed a hug. The paint had started chipping, the windows were thin and broken, the wood was rough and needed stain. I got lost in it's beautiful bones!  I dreamed of the potential all around me at that house.  I loved that it was old and had a story.  I dreamed of what story we would tell living there!

As years passed, it started to become more and more clear that we had bitten off more than we could chew with the house.  It needed more work than we  had time or talent for!

We couldn't repair it. It was old and no use to us anymore so we sold it.

Today, I have been thinking a lot about the word RESTORE.

Something that once was beautiful and new is now,  tattered and worn.

No use to us.

There are days when I feel that way.

Broken.

Undone.

Tired.

Unwanted.

Replaceable.


We look around, and see new life and potential and don't know where we fit into it all.

It may sound cliche but it is the dang truth!

As we age we do get older, we do slow down!  But! If we open our hands and allow ourselves to learn new things, to make mistakes, to get back up, dust ourselves off and keep going-I believe we become newer versions of ourself!  No, not younger but newer!

REAL! LOVED!  ALIVE! WANTED! WHOLE!

If we stay the same-if we stay stuck where we are, then we are done. Finished!  Dead. No life. If we squeeze tightly to the things we fear losing, then we lose it.  Every time.

Webster's Dictionary defines Restore as: to put or bring back into existence or use
So what was dead,  brought back to life again!


In The Bible, Paul says it this way:

2 Corinthians 5:17-20The Message (MSG)

16-20 Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.

I want to be new again-I want that for you too!