Why does repurposing something unwanted feel so good?

I found three tannish-brown (you know the color) filing cabinets that were literally collecting dust in a basement at work that serves as a kind of graveyard for giant desks, displays for an overwhelming amount of printed content, and other extremely heavy furniture from the 90’s. While I was pushing things around to get to these perfectly functional filing cabinets, I kept thinking, “they should just throw this stuff away,” knowing full well why they haven’t. Sure they’re not wanted or needed NOW, but there’s nothing wrong with them. At one point, they served someone really well. Maybe they can again in the future. 

The world has changed, people have changed, and we don’t operate like we used to. Files I work on, the way I manage projects across multiple people, and how I collaborate is all digital, making filing cabinets antiques, at least for most people anyway. I’m happy to have been able to work with both the relics of the past and the seemingly limitless tools of the future. 

Repurposing is so satisfying because it takes creative problem solving to think outside patterns you’ve lived within to give something useless a new purpose. Yes, it keeps trash out of the landfill, and yes it’s free, but even more exciting than that, it establishes new value once again. 

That’s just what Jesus does for us too. He redeems rejected people, restores broken hearts, and establishes value in us all, including marginalized, undesired people. 

Perhaps the real reason repurposing feels so good is that in a small way it reflects God’s redemptive character we were designed to participate in for the salvation of others.