Salvaging Life

Sorry I’ve missed you the past few weeks.

I’ve been absorbed in salvaging.  

Webster defines salvaging as:

The act of saving something extracted (as from rubbish)

as valuable or useful.

It seems I’ve been doing a lot of salvaging in the last two years.

I’ve relied on God  to help me find good stuff in some very big piles of lifetime rubbish.

God has helped me salvage peace from relationship ruin.

Then… Hurricane Ian brought another huge salvage job to God and me.

Right now God is helping me salvage hope from home loss. 

Wow, God.   Thanks for the help.

 I’m salvaging my hard-hit island home.  You, dear reader, have visited my island many times.  

I’ve written of searching island paths, stalking sharks, dancing with dolphins and walking sunset beaches.  

I haven’t seen a beach since August, however. 

Hurricane Ian chains me to piles of rubble. 

Instead of shorts, I wear sweats, work boots and gloves.

My face is smeared with dirt, sweat and insulation, but I’m salvaging some beautiful things in the rubbish. 

Folks are crying, hugging and praying…

Walking wounded are giving, hosting and helping. 

God’s love is being salvaged in the hurricane horror. 

Miracles are happening.

I only had one day to clear soaked sheetrock, beams, furniture, sodden mounds of insulation, trash and fallen wallboard from my upstairs.

I tried and tried, but by late afternoon on my second-to-last day, I couldn’t physically get this done.

In desperation, I called Calvary Baptist Church.

The church answering machine directed me to a myriad of numbers. In my exhausted despair, I didn’t hear the right extension. I hung up in frustration. I almost gave up.

Who could come on such short notice? In desperation, I tried one last time.

A young man answered the phone. “I will be there with two other volunteers tomorrow morning,” the miracle voice told me.

The next morning, three young men found their way to my remote island home. One was the pastor’s son. Another man had lost his own home.

In true miracle fashion, these three helped me clear my destroyed upstairs bedroom.

-Why did the pastor’s son pick up the phone?

How could they randomly come so quickly?

This was a God miracle.

I’m grateful for it.

I’m still making my way through this salvage business. I hope to share love along the way.

Perhaps LOVE is the salvaged treasure hidden in the rubbish.

You know what I think? 

✅ I think we’re all in the salvage business.

✅ We all have to salvage gems from daily disappointment. 

✅ God is here to help. 

✅ Let’s join God. 

✅ We can roll up our sleeves, put on work gloves and look for lessons in the losses.

❤️ God’s got this. ❤️

Let’s trust God for salvage and salvation.

New Life will be rescued from the rubble. 

✅ I guarantee it. 

“And we know that in all things God works for the good

of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. “

– Romans 8:28