The Divine Rearranger

You’ve probably heard about those designers that go into a home, take all the existing furnishings and décor items and simply rearrange it all and, whoa la – the overall look is more welcoming, open, spacious and less cluttered. One piece of furniture can be moved to an entirely different location and that piece suddenly looks like a million bucks. Another piece of furniture can be moved to a wall and now the room is opened up with much more space and better functionaiity. The designer can find an old table or chair in the garage and repaint it or reupholster it and suddenly it's turned into a coveted piece of art. Junk becomes beauty.

You know where I’m going with this – right? God is that kind of designer, too. He takes all the junk that has been in our lives -- all the crud, the emotional issues, the dysfunction, the weaknesses and He either rearranges it or He may get rid of it altogether because we just don’t need it anymore. But, sometimes He allows us to keep it and He repurposes it. He can still use it. He just uses it for something new and beautiful.

I Iove going to a Chazown event where attendees are invited to go through their timeline and identify the good things, places, events and people that positively impacted their iives. As wonderful as it is to remember those sweet times and people, there’s also the need to identify those events, people and things that were hurtful and disappointing to our lives. At the time, those hurtful things seemed like the worst times ever: maybe it was rejection, an abuse, a divorce, a financial disaster, the death of a loved one. At the Chazown event, the leader asks “Can you see how God used the experiences in your timeline to show you His ultimate destiny and purpose for your life?” And different ones will share -- like the gal who admitted she had been raped as a child but today she is a member of a women’s advocacy group – for troubled women in marriages or the workplace. Also those who went through financial diasaster and today they teach financial planning. Others that went through extramarital affairs and today they are family and marital counselors. God takes the imbalance, dysfunction and rearranges it for good.

I'm reminded of a Bill & Gloria Gaither song that explains it so well: "He made something beautiful, something good;
All my confusion He understood;
All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife,
But He made something beautiful of my life."

The Lenten season began on Wednesday. Not counting Sundays, it's 40 days of "makeover" or "rearrangement" -- out with the old, in with the new. Out with the junk, and in with the fresh and new. It's the time to dive deeper into God's Word, getting body and soul free of toxicity, and being in a place of openness to His call on our lives. Just as those home rearrangers give homes a fresh new makeover, perhaps we need a makeover in our lives. Our makeover takes place as we submit to the ONE Who created us.....and He starts from the inside out! Old things will be passed away and the NEW YOU -- will be revealed. We just have to let go and put our lives into the hands of the Master Designer Specialist. The choice is ours. All we have to do is say, "Have your way in me. Now, let the transformation BEGIN!"