God Turns Castoffs Into New Creations

A woodshop can teach more about hope than a self-help book. We open with a simple story about a friend who scours lumber yards for warped offcuts and busted pallets, then turns them into game cabinets, shelves, and gifts that surprise everyone who sees them. The trick isn’t magic tools; it’s trained eyes, patient hands, and a habit of planing past the ugly top layer until the clean grain shows through. That moment in the shop becomes a living parable for anyone who feels like the discard pile—bent by setbacks, cut down by criticism, or priced out by circumstances beyond your control.

Across a tight five minutes, we connect the craft of reclaiming scrap wood to the deeper work of renewal and purpose. Rising lumber costs force creative choices, and those constraints reveal a truth most of us miss: what’s written off as fuel for the fire often hides the strongest patterns and the most useful shapes. We read from 2 Corinthians about becoming a new creation and talk about what that means in daily life—how old labels lose their grip, how scars can be placed where they add character instead of causing collapse, and how a fresh start doesn’t erase your story but reframes it.

You’ll hear practical takeaways you can use today: name the top layer that needs to go, sort your “scraps” into strengths that fit real roles, and trust that steady passes create lasting change. Expect a calm, honest boost to start your morning with perspective and purpose. If you’ve ever believed you’re too far gone or too late to matter, let this be your reminder that you are not firewood—you’re raw material for something sturdy and beautiful. Subscribe for weekday encouragement, share this with someone who needs a lift, and leave a review with one word that describes the kind of “new” you’re reaching for.

Chapters

• 0:10 Welcome And Morning Setup
• 0:32 John The Self-Taught Woodworker
• 1:13 Using Scrap Wood Creatively
• 2:04 From Castoffs To Beauty
• 3:33 You Are Made New In Christ
• 5:33 Closing Invitation And Sign-Off

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:10

Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mack, and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right. I have a friend named John who's become a really good woodworker, and he is basically self-taught through experimenting with the wood and watching YouTube videos and other things on the internet. He's been able to create some really beautiful pieces over the last couple years. Some of them have been for his home, others have been for gifts, and I've been fortunate enough to receive a couple of those. But he's been able to make things like a game cabinet, a variety of different tables, a shelf for the cat to sit on, signs around the house, plant stands, spice racks, all kinds of things he's been able to do. He's actually even made an old Viking shield out of wood. Amazing kind of things. But one of the things that's happened in the lumber market over the last while is that wood prices, they've just gone absolutely nuts. It was bad enough a couple years ago when John started doing this. But over the last year and a half, two years, the prices have more than doubled on most wood products. And they're just crazy out there right now. And so what John learned to do from the very beginning was that he would build most of his projects out of scrap wood. He goes to the local lumber yard and asks them for pieces that are cut offs or scrap or ones they're going to throw away anyway. And these pieces may be twisted or broken or warped or some for some reason they can't be used any other way. If he's really fortunate, he can get a hold of some old wooden skids or pallets that can be broken down. On a rare occasion, he may really strike gold and find a piece of good plywood that the customer just needed cut, but they had to pay for the whole piece, so they left the cut-off piece behind. He once asked one of the other fellows at the lumber yard, what do other people use this wood for? And the fellow said, Well, most of them are just take it home and use it for firewood. But John takes this wood, the wood that would be cast off, the wood that would be no good for anybody else, or the wood that they would just burn for their campfire, and he takes it home and he starts to work with it. He said he realized that there isn't any piece of wood there that is completely useless, that any piece, no matter how twisted, bent, warped, cupped, or whatever shape it's in, none of it's useless. It all can serve a purpose of some kind. He just has to figure out where it fits and what to do with it. One of the things he enjoys the most is being able to take that top, ugly layer off of a piece of wood and being able to see the beauty of the pristine wood just below that damaged layer. And then he's able to use it to make some beautiful things, some incredible things. Now, the truth of the matter for us is that we have a lot in common with that wood. We can feel like we are the cast-offs, like we're the useless pieces that don't fit anywhere and can't do anything. We've been bent, warped, cut off, discarded, and we feel that we have no purpose or use anymore. And yeah, just like John came along and took that wood and began to create something beautiful of it, God comes along in our lives and he starts to create something beautiful in us. Second Corinthians chapter 5, verses 17 and 18 in the Passion Translations read this way. Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new creation. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new, and God has made all things new. Isn't that powerful for us? God has told us that He makes all things new. Imagine that. If you feel like you're damaged goods, that you've been thrown away, that you're of no use to anything anymore. God's promise is that He makes us new. He gets rid of all that old that's so ugly and so hurtful and so damaging, and He creates a newness full of life and strength and hope. And that's God's promise to us. If you are feeling that you are kind of like in the discard pile, in the pile that's no good or no use to anybody or anything, let me tell you that God does not put you in that pile. God doesn't throw you away, God brings you to himself. And when he brings you to himself, he not only creates something new within us, he creates within us a purpose and a beauty that we can use to help change the world and impact people. So this morning, my friends, if you feel like you're on that cast off pile, if if you feel like you've been beat up so bad that you just should be thrown away and you are no purpose and no help or good to anyone, let me tell you this that God loves you so much that he is willing to take you and is creating within you this new creation, this new ability to have a purpose and to make a difference in your world. God has that for you because he loves you. Never let the enemy lie to you and tell you you have been discarded or you are useless. That is alive from the pit of hell. God has a purpose for you. Be blessed, my friends. We'll talk again tomorrow. Thank you for listening today. And I invite you to join me Monday to Friday right here on Starting Right with Danny Max.