Life Leftovers

So what does a compost pile have to do with a magnet for ovarian cancer?

We have a compost pile.  Several weeks ago (before the tornadoes) when I was trying to help God out with how He wants me to write and to speak, I decided to try to attempt to be greener.  I was inspired by the zero waste home and thought maybe that was a good starting point for me.  To clarify, I am no where near having a zero waste home and thought I would try to take steps to get there and maybe God would somehow use that as a basis for me to write and to speak (you can laugh - it IS an absurd idea that I would do this).  God quickly told me that was not to be my platform for writing or speaking, but He did not tell me that I could not recycle or be more environmentally conscious.  We already had a compost pile, so I became more conscientious about setting aside waste and scraps that could go to the compost pile.  It has been fun.  The whole family gets involved in it.  Our leftovers are taken and placed in the compost pile, and worms and bugs and other stuff take the decay and turn it into new soil.  Which in turn is used for planting and growing new plants.  What is old is made new.  What once was a living thing becomes life giving soil and nourishment to another living thing.  It is what Ann Voskamp would call the Ugly-Beautiful.  I was reminded of Genesis 3:19, "for dust you are and to dust you will return," as well as Isaiah 61:3, "bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes."  Everything has a place and purpose for the kingdom of God.  Sometimes, the most useful is what we call our leftovers.  The things we throw out, He reuses, He repurposes, He makes new.  Our weaknesses, His strength.  So there was God hiding in the middle of compost and leftovers.

And then there was the magnet for ovarian cancer.  Ovarian cancer is a silent killer, which again took me to the Garden of Eden, where in the beginning we were told not to eat off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for if we did, we would surely die.  We were not meant to experience death let alone know the cause of our death.  But now that our eyes have been opened to knowledge, we futilely work to prevent that which can never be prevented - our death and our demise.  I want a cure for cancer just as much as the next person, but whether or not a cure is ever found, there can only be one cure for death - Jesus Christ.  All other attempts at cures for death are futile at best.  We prolong the inevitable. 

Every thing in the physical world is a symbol of the spiritual world.  All of us will experience a physical death.  "For dust we are and to dust we will return."  I don't know what it will be like and I don't know anyone who can tell me.  But, just as in the physical realm, we will die in the spiritual realm - those who Christ knows will live in Him, those who He never knew will be eternally separated from Him.  And what I do know about the spiritual realm (which is very little indeed) is that it seems to be even better than the physical realm.   Just like the leftovers going into the compost, my body will be recycled and made new, and spiritually, I will awake to new life in a new place with Christ.  I will be given a new body and new sight.  And my old, former self, will be as a speck of dust.

"For God so loved the world that whosoever believes in Him, will not perish, but have everlasting life."  John 3:16

"For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive."  1 Cor 15:22

Christ gives abundant life.  It does not await us in eternity.  It begins now.  Even when we throw out our leftovers, He awaits to resurrect them anew - be it past sins, current sins, future sins, or everyday struggles, like gossip, or rebellion, or idolatry.  For example, if you throw out gossip, He just might start using your mouth to speak truth.  If you throw out rebellion, He might use you more powerfully than you ever believed a rebel could be used for His glory.  If you throw out insecurity, you might find security in Him.

Only God can take something so disgusting and ugly and turn it into something indescribably beautiful.

{Just so you know, He wants so much more than your leftovers - He wants every little piece of you, from the good and the beautiful to the bad and the ugly.}

What Life leftovers will you offer Him today?