Resources At Hand

In 1st Corinthians 1, we see that an aspect of the nature of God is to take what seems insignificant or useless and uses it for His glory.
27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence.

I believe that shows the transformational nature of God - He is the One who gives beauty for ashes, strength out of weakness, and brings glory even out of dishonor.   He takes our trials and turns them to pure gold as we trust Him.   He takes the weak, foolish, and insignificant things of this world and turns them into tools for His glory - He doesn't waste anything...our challenge is to allow Him to move in our midst, even through what we might discard or ignore, looking for evidence of His presence, in the everyday, the mundane...and the insignificant.

In Exodus chapter 4, we see an example of how God can use something seemingly insignificant to demonstrate something highly significant...2 ...the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A rod." 3 And He said, "Cast it on the ground." So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail" (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), 5 "that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you."

Here's some news I came across on Mashable.com: 

Georgia Tech has received a $900,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research to develop a robot that can complete missions in dangerous situations by utilizing the remaining debris found around the area. Professor Mike Stilman, team leader of the project, refers the robot as “MacGyver bot.”

“Our goal is to develop a robot that behaves like MacGyver, the television character from the 1980s who solved complex problems and escaped dangerous situations by using everyday objects and materials he found at hand,” Stilman says.

The MacGyver bot can be placed in disaster and war zones to help find people and rebuild the areas. The robot will have the basic cognitive processes to take advantage of arbitrary objects around the environment and use them as tools. There’s still a long way to go, even on developing the prototype, but it's an example of a potentially useful invention that can take seemingly useless items and use them for good.

I think about the Israeli inventor who has developed a "cardboard bicycle", which he says has the potential to offer inexpensive transportation for areas around the world, including impoverished nations and congested cities.  

And, I came across a ministry that's featured in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, called Plywood People.  Their slogan is, "We will be known by the problems we solve".  They describe themselves as "an innovative community addressing social needs. We are always searching for social problems with the hope to match them with entrepreneurial creativity to organize, innovate, and manage ideas that produce change."

A great example of this is taking discarded billboard materials, using refugee labor, and crafting those resources into tote bags and billfolds.   These items are then sold to help others in need. They also collect unused or partially used gift cards, and give them to people and organizations in need.  Again, this is an example of taking what is insignificant at face value and bring significance and assistance to others.

So, there may be resources that are available at your fingertips - perhaps physical resources that can be used to help those in need.   Or, the valuable resource of time, to use a God-given skill to minister to someone else.   Perhaps you've been praying for an answer to prayer and you're not quite getting it - there may be evidence of God's hand right in front of your eyes, if you could only spiritually see it.   For instance, you may be praying for a job, but God is meeting that need in another way, maybe in some sort of entrepreneurial endeavor.   Or, you may be experiencing anxiety in a situation, but the Lord has placed tools before you to enable you to walk in perfect peace - you just have to embrace it.   What might seem insignificant might be very significant as you see it from a spiritual perspective.