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Restorable.. the analogy breaks down

Jen Mininger • Dec 06, 2019

Nothing is "too far gone"
(This post can be heard on The Hope Layer Podcast, episode 4)


Its been almost 3 years since I walked through that infamous junk yard for the first time…
I walked around seeing some cool stuff that I know a car enthusiast would want to restore, but I also walked around seeing stuff that looked really hopeless…

I took my picture near both of those conditions…

Cause I could relate to both…

I walked around and saw lettering on doors that told me the story of a hopeful business, and I wondered, what happened to that business?... Did they have to close up shop?  

I saw cars with old toys sitting in them. Toys that made me think that family memories were held in that car. Maybe that car was meaningful to a parent or a child. But, that car, eventually gave out.. or maybe it got hit, and the family had to send it to the junkyard.

I looked at the insides of some cars and let me tell you...I can’t even imagine the story that caused some of the damage that I saw.  

I looked at headlights, and grills..and some of these trucks and cars sort of came to life for me… and I imagined that they looked sad.

And I took some more pictures of all the devastation, the brokeness and the hopelessness that surrounded me…

Because, as you know...I could relate.

I walked around taking in the sights and thinking about my hard stuff. The stuff that I didn’t want to face...the stuff that didn’t seem worth the hard work to find life in again…

Could I do it? Did I have the strength for it?

I looked at those cars and trucks, knowing that they needed SO much work ...and likely, most of them would never “run” again. 

Was I gonna be like them? Was I restorable? Honestly, at the time, I didn’t know the outcome… I just knew that God was pulling me to look at my hard stuff and look for hope.  So, I did.

And now...here I am years later...sort of inviting you into the junk yard with me...

So, if you watched the restorable video ( https://www.jenminingerphotography.com/restorable ), you know that this project was born out of walking through my own junk! With God’s help, my loving counselor’s help, and support around me...I came to a point of needing to ACKNOWLEDGE my brokeness. I needed to name my hard thing, look at it straight in the “face” and even feel it.  

Sound a little scary? I get it...it does feel scary!
 
So, before I go on and say any more today...I want to go straight to SOME of the good news…

The good news is that I didn’t STAY in the heavy...I didn’t get stuck. Rather, it was in the heavy that I discovered a new light and a new beauty.

Granted, as the onion layers continue to peel back, there seems to be new hard stuff for me to visit, and I will...BUT.. I will, with hope and a knowledge that I’ll get through it, it will be ok, and so will I. There will be another side. There IS HOPE for each of my hurting and broken places.

You see, it helps me to look at both sides of a matter, in fact that’s some good advice that I found in the Bible, in Ecc. 7. So, on the one hand, I hope that together we can look at our brokenness while on the other hand..we will be looking to the Restorer...and therefore we are ultimately looking toward and feeling hope.

So, what’s your hard thing?

I’d like to give YOU space here to validate your hard thing and say that it IS in fact, hard.

We’re not gonna compare. We are not gonna be-little or minimize our hard thing today. We are just gonna acknowledge it. Because, if you look around in a junkyard...the bottom line is, those cars, no matter their condition, no matter their past, no matter what their story is that brought them there...they are there…. and it isn’t pretty. It’s NOT easy. 

So, As you imagine walking through the junkyard with me...and seeing some sad things… can you identify with any of them? There are ALOT of them, in this junk yard..


I’m thinking of my hard thing, the thing that I struggle to believe is restorable… the thing that I don’t even feel like having restored.

What about you?
What rises up and leaves you feeling defeated?
What keeps knocking you over? 
What are the areas in your life where you just can’t seem to get it right on a consistent basis? Do you feel shame? Do you feel like you might never measure up in certain areas? Have you built walls around your broken spot?  


Maybe it's something someone else did or said to you? Did you receive the kind of hurt that leaves you feeling like you may never stand strongly on your own two feet again? You feel so crushed. Your fears and triggers limit you so much that you feel trapped, imprisoned or powerless because of them.

Is there a piece of you that has lost its purpose, luster, and life, and could just curl up and ...well, sort of.. rot. Right?...cause what else can that spot do if it has no hope?

Your best days are behind you or maybe loneliness is so heavy that the quietness actually, feels loud.
Listen...Whatever that thing is that your thinking about… it’s not easy. 

You could use some comfort, and I don’t know if this is true, BUT.. I kind of think that we can’t be truly comforted unless we acknowledge the thing that needs comfort. God, in His gentleness and kindness acknowledges our hurts. He looks to some of us and calls us “the broken hearted”.  

I don’t think God is about minimizing our hard things. Rather, I think that He is acknowledging them and wanting to meet us right there, in that hard spot, so He can comfort us.
Are you still imagining walking through the junkyard with me?

As I walked around, I saw some piles of scrap metal that I could barely identify as something that used to be whole car, and I thought, “ok, well THAT IS actually too far gone”

Like, really...some things that I saw there, were actually not worth the hassle, not worth the investment, not really “restorable."
Sometimes we look at ourselves or others and sadly, we think the same thing. 

But that is exactly where this “junkyard” analogy breaks down. Because God is so different than the human restorer.

 In God's eyes and with His power, no one is too far gone. We are all worth the investment. We are all lovable. Nothing is impossible. In God's eyes and with His power we are all restorable. The restoring process may be hard but the other side offers so much hope.

The restoring process… I’m not going to try to excite you and say that being restored is easy. I mean, if you can imagine all the work it would take to get one of these cars out of this 20 acre junkyard and then having a mechanic start tearing it apart more… with sparks flying, the grinding wheel cutting…. And time passing… it might continue to look hopeless. So, maybe you need a picture of hope…


Let me try here…

 Have you ever seen an old car driving down the road? Like a really OLD car… something from the 1930’s. Not the car that has sat in a garage for almost 100 years and has only taken occasional safe little Sunday drive. The kind of car that, quite honestly, has barely seen the light of day! But, the kind of car that did life, drove the miles. Went back and forth to work, on vacation, felt the wind at the beach..and, basically, a car that really ‘lived”.

Eventually, that car, it lost its ability to serve, to give, to cruise down the highway and... ended up, in a junkyard.

Now, do you know how a street rod enthusiast would see that old junked car? He would be excited over it, giddy even, he would want to take it home to his own garage? That mechanic would be obsessed with the rusted out car. He would spend countless hours and dollars investing and loving on that once full of life machine. 
 
And then… eventually, you and I would see this shiny, beautiful, well running car sparkling in the sun, and we would hear the roar from the power that is now under its hood. 

Can you picture it? Can you hear it?  

That hopeless car...it has a beautiful new life now. A new life FROM it’s brokenness. It now runs, like it's never run before… 

That car is the little picture of hope...the knowledge that eventually the hardest work is done...and eventually the broken spots will have a new shine to them.  

Will you keep that picture in your mind? Will you hope for something new and beautiful?

Will you allow yourself to take a peek at your potential..
Here is some of what the "Restorer" does for us  …

 In ezekiel 34:16 (from the NIV version)
 "I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak."

Then i learned more about the “restorer’s” heart in Ezekiel 11:19
 "I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh"

This is the kind of stuff He does.  Our "Mechanic"!
He cares… He wants to make things new … and HE is the only one that can!
Here is a little something from Ann Voskamp's book, “The Broken Way” she says,
https://annvoskamp.com/thebrokenway/


I like when she says, “”He believes in the story He’s writing THROUGH you”... THROUGH YOU...through your strengths, your gifts, your story...and your brokenness...He’s got a good story to continue to write through those spots.

  Will you trust Him ...the Restorer, the “Mechanic” who has endless energy and creativity to bring that struggling spot to something fresh and new?

I have a verse for you today from Isaiah 57...


Well, it’s that time of year, where SO much of humanity pauses to acknowledge that a little miraculous baby was born over 2000 years ago. A baby who was named Jesus… “Jesus”, a name that almost all of humanity has heard about. 

 A man who has changed so much….

 So, I see it as a perfect time to quote Him. In John 10:10, Jesus tells why He came to earth, He says…”The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

So, where in your life are you lacking abundance?  

The ONE who came and changed human history, came so that we can have a full and abundant life.

I guess that means that there is hope for each of our difficult and broken spots.

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