WHY NOTHING IS WASTED

Ever been in a situation or even a season where you question your very purpose in life? Both hands in the air over here! You wonder what on earth you are doing and worry if you are wasting your time (which is precious) or someone else’s time (which is worse) or maybe even God’s time (which is clearly not great.) I’ve been reminded recently that NOTHING is wasted with God. He redeems and restores and revives…

Do you ever glance back in the rearview mirror and wonder why? Why did I go through that pain or live in that city or date that guy or lose that job? Or perhaps you are in the thick of a thing right now—your work is mundane, your marriage is messy, parenthood seems like it’s sucking the life out of you, or your battling sickness. Truly, my heart goes out to you, friend, and I certainly don’t want to be that voice with the Christianeze platitudes or make light of your pain. I don’t have the answers to the why’s but I find it helps a little to take a breath and take a step back.

In a world where things are so disposable, it’s easy to forget that God is utterly permanent. He was and is and always will be. He can use and re-use. He is not wasteful. He creates beauty from ashes. He’s amazing.

In a world where we indulge ourselves with instant gratification, it’s easy to forget that God sees the big picture. In light of eternity, time is irrelevant. That it’s not ALL about us. (Shocker.)

The good news is that God does indeed have a plan for each of His children and even when we don’t understand the why’s, we can trust that He can and will use our every experience for His glory—somehow:

“So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose.” Romans 8:28 (TPT)

I’ve been asked numerous times if I wish I had started writing earlier in my life. If I regret not going to University and diving right in rather than waiting until I was in my late 30’s (gasp!) to finally wield my pen. But no, I have no regrets in that regard. My dream to be an author took decades to incubate and take root and become desperate. I needed a whole wealth of life experience under my belt before I could possibly hope to begin, I see that now.

Oh, along the way there were seasons where I floundered and questioned my purpose in the great scheme of things. Did God really have a plan for me? Maybe you can relate. When I decided against becoming a teacher and instead settled for banking and a series of other un-Laura-ish jobs, or when I was diaper-deep in motherhood and every day was an exercise in survival, or when I sat alone with my baby in the church nursery wondering why I even bothered coming, or when we grieved over a miscarriage. The experiences of many. And sometimes we think we’ve wasted chunks of our lives because that’s how it feels in the moment.

“He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.” 2 Corinthians 1:4 (MSG)

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, friend, and occasionally we are blessed with seeing a little glimpse of why we had our desert seasons or our painful trials. We see how God gathers up the fragments and creates something beautiful, how He is able to make our messes or even our mundane meaningful.

How my shelved dream of teaching came true when I homeschooled my own kids for 13 years. How I was able to look a grieving mother in the eye as she experienced a miscarriage and give her hope that she would survive. Or how many nuggets of humour and joy and empathy and writing fodder I would glean from simply experiencing motherhood.

“Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.” 1 Corinthians 15:58b (MSG)

BAKING TANGENT: You know by now that I’m all about the baking, but the truth is I would love to be one of those humble-yet-successful gardeners who harvest a bounty of fresh fruit and vegetables regularly from their prolific rows of perfectly formed crops mere steps from their backdoor. We grow raspberries. Just raspberries. And that’s only because they’ve always been there and need no encouragement or nurturing. We mulched over the “vegetable patch” area until we have time for it. (Who are we kidding?) Anyway, I try to utilize every berry, even the squished ones that look a little worse for wear/ the deer have nuzzled. NOTHING IS WASTED, y’all! And the oh-so-pink frosting on this pound cake is the perfect way to use up the raspberry runts:

RASPBERRY SWIRL POUND CAKE by Sally’s Baking Addiction… try it and thank me later!

Friend—whether this summer season for you is one of suffering or smooth sailing, know that it is not wasted with God. At the beach or at a loved one’s bedside, He sees and He knows and He cares. Broken heart or full heart—He redeems and restores and revives.

Grateful for a God who loves us more than we can ever imagine…