Repurposing

Yesterday a group of us at our ‘Seagull Theatre’ were talking about the ‘carbon footprint’ of the building, recycling, roof insulation, solar panels… balancing the desirable, with the practical, with the affordable. It’s a conversation that many homes and organisations have had.

Into our green, eco-friendly discussion came the issue of ‘repurposing’… We talked about theatre set-designers repurposing scenery, costume experts repurposing clothes…

I thought about my friends at Men’s Shed who repurpose wooden pallets into bird boxes, hedgehog homes, garden planters… Television shows where clever, creative people repurpose a bath into a sofa or a wardrobe or a bottle into a table-light…

…At school I remember repurposing my maths homework into a paper aeroplane…In our Men’s Shed beehives, bees repurpose nectar into honey… and my friend Tim had a heart valve replacement with a repurposed pig’s valve…

Repurposing people…

In our theatre a shy young man is repurposed into a brave policeman… and the woman that played the lover in one play is repurposed into the murderer in the next.

Friends who’ve had career changes been repurposed… The engineer who decided that she wants to become a science teacher… the nurse who starts up a sandwich making business… This morning I read about Amos, the shepherd, who was repurposed by his God to become a prophet.

Chatting to other retired gents at Men’s Shed, some of us are going through the process of repurposing. Bus drivers, accountants and shopkeepers are now ex-bus drivers, ex-accountants and ex-shopkeepers. In discovering ‘what comes next’ they are repurposing their lives…

PAUSE… An hour later…

…I had a phone call: ‘Malcolm. Please help!!’ I had to go out and help a couple of friends with an emergency. My day has been repurposed!

Meanwhile… Musing on St Paul’s words… ‘Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…’ It seems to me that he’s talking about an ongoing process of intentionally repurposing our lives.