Inspirational: DIGGING THROUGH OLD JUNK DRAWERS

by: Linda Kirby/WGON 9.21.26

Life isn’t a bed of roses. Sometimes it feels more like a field of thorns. “Stuff happens.” Loss happens. Change happens. And none of us get through this world without being knocked flat at least once.

Sometimes it’s financial loss — the kind that wipes out everything you worked for. You look around at the empty place where your security used to be and wonder how you’ll ever rebuild. But many people discover something surprising: When they start over, they often rise higher than they ever did before.

“And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten.” (Joel 2:25)

Sometimes it’s a health event — one that changes your life forever. The old version of you is gone, and you’re left staring at a future you didn’t ask for. It takes time to adjust. It takes courage to reinvent yourself. And it takes leaning hard on God’s promise to carry you when your strength isn’t enough.

“Even to your old age I am He… I will carry you.” (Isaiah 46:4)

But here’s where the story turns.

When life forces you to start over, you have to dig down deep — the same way you dig through an old junk drawer you haven’t opened in years.

You know how it goes:

You pull the drawer open… and suddenly you’re staring at things you forgot existed. A little treasure you hadn’t seen in ages. Or something you didn’t even know was in there.

That’s what reinventing yourself feels like.

You dig deep inside your soul — and you find things God planted there long ago. Gifts you never used. Talents you never explored. Abilities you didn’t know you had because life kept you too busy, too stressed, or too overwhelmed to go digging.

Sometimes you find:

• a poet

• a writer

• a video maker

• a teacher

• a storyteller

• a creator

• a comforter

• a minister

• or a person who can still do beautiful things with just their upper body

Sure, the lower body may no longer work the way it once did. But that upper body still has life, strength, purpose, and calling.

God didn’t leave you empty. He hid treasures inside you — and now that life has slowed you down, you finally have time to open that “old junk drawer” and discover them.

“Behold, I will do a new thing… I will make a way in the wilderness.” (Isaiah 43:19)

God never promised a life without trials. But He did promise to walk us through them, to strengthen us in them, and to bring us out better than we were before.

“After you have suffered a while, the God of all grace… will make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.” (1 Peter 5:10)

So go digging. Pull that drawer open. Look for the gifts you didn’t know were there. Build on them. Grow them. Let God shape this new version of you.

Because when you reach the other side of the trial, you’ll find a version of yourself you never knew existed — stronger, softer, wiser, and full of a joy that comes only from God.

🌿 A Closing Word for my dear friend, Linda

Before I end this, I want to say something personal — something from one Linda to another.

As I wrote this inspirational, I realized I wasn’t just talking about “people out there.” I was talking about me… and I was talking about you.

We’re both learning how to live a life we didn’t plan. We’re both digging through our own “junk drawers,” finding things we didn’t know were there. We’re both discovering new ways to be ourselves again — just in a different way than before.

You’re not alone in this. Many of us are in the same boat, learning how to become a “new version” of ourselves. And you’re right in the middle of that journey — learning how to be the new Linda God is shaping.

And I’m right there with you, learning how to be the new me.

We’re walking this road together, even if our paths look a little different. And the same God who is helping me reinvent my life is helping you reinvent yours.

He’s not done with either one of us.

©2026 Linda Kirby