Repurposed
There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens.
King Solomon
As my husband I cleaned out our garage, we came across an old CD shelf we bought and assembled in the late 90’s. The unit proudly displayed our Hootie, Dave Matthews, and Barenaked Lady collections. But, since, Spotify has replaced CDs, this old furniture found itself hosting a spider village in our garage. However, I thought with some sprucing up I could repurpose it to display some pieces for our tent sale.
Then, my brain got stuck on the word repurpose: adapt to use for another purpose. It is good to repurpose, recycle, renew, redeem. Jesus redeemed me. He repurposed me too- welcome to my stream of consciousness.
I remembered the first time God repurposed me. I was a young mom, struggling with four kiddos under five overwhelmed, unfulfilled and so tired. My ambitions spun me in circles and led to chaos. I started to read scripture and discovered how Jesus led to love, grace, and peace. He taught how His purposes brought life and were far greater than mine. He repurposed me.
Ahhhhhhhh-but repurposing is not a one time deal. Life happens, and it is hard and disappointing. In 2010, I experienced anxiety that ultimately brought me closer to God, but crippled me for a season. Later, as my sweet, beautiful babies grew and one by one left for college, I wondered if I was as obsolete as the CD holder. And when I finally thought I knew what God had next for me as an empty nester, the plan ended abruptly and painfully. But, God (Side note: Have you ever noticed how often scripture writers use “But, God"? They describe their world going to hell in a handbasket, then write "But, God." They chose to believe God's hold on the basket is far stronger than any spiral to the pit) But, God faithfully continued to repurpose me through His grace, love, and peace.
For me, back to school time triggered questions of my purpose and caused me to demand answers from God as if he was a fortune teller. I suppose I dreaded that every year moved me closer to an empty nest. And although God always provided incredible opportunities and fulfilling work-I found myself overly concerned with "what will I do when..." I honestly felt called to be a mom and had no idea how God might repurpose me. Five years ago, if someone would have told me that I would have a decor business, write a blog, be in seminary and host pop-up shops-I would have peed my pants. (Probably from laughter-but remember I had all those kids and well, sometimes it just happens.) This fall, as so many of us moms kiss and wave goodbye to our little ones heading to kindergarten or college, be encouraged-God likes to repurpose.
Okay- back to the CD holder. Here is the the 1997 stunner. It's fancy because the actual shelves fold up and it is easy to move.
I love the trend of wallpapering backs of bookcases or shelves to add some color and design. But I didn’t really want to spend more than 5 bucks to make this piece pretty. So I thought of Paper Source and all of its beautiful paper. BOOM $ 4.95 for one piece of paper that would cover the back perfectly. But, then, I started to think of that word "repurpose" again and I thought I could use this piece in different spots based on the paper.
So after spending way too much time at Paper Source, I picked these three,
I cleaned off the spider family,and painted it with a Magnolia chalk paint in "Shiplap." I had some left from another project.I measured the back, cut the paper to fit and adhered it with a little Elmers.
The first paper I tried was the sweet elephant paper- Since I am going to be a Grandma in December, (repurposed) I thought how cute for a little grandbaby space.
Then, I thought the piece would be great in an office and used the grey arrow pattern.
Finally, the gold and white floral became the perfect background for a few of the tent sale pieces available.
My work is sloppy on the first two since I will use the shelf first for the tent sale in a couple weeks, but then I will change it back for my grandbaby! Talk about repurposed!
