Published: August 19, 2008 12:52 pm         

Turn your trash into treasure

Several weeks ago one of our neighbors organized a yard sale for the whole street. Ads were placed in the paper, signs were posted near the entrance of our cul-de-sac and we hauled our junk onto our driveways, hoping that the old axiom would ring true: one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

Thankfully, none of us were disappointed. In fact, we advertised the start of the sale to begin at 8 o’clock, but when I walked outside to retrieve the morning paper at 6 o’clock, several vehicles had already lined up (must have been the 20-year-old cowboy hat and boots I finally parted with that drew them).

For the next six hours, hundreds of strangers parked on our lawns, walked through our shrubs and left debris in their wake as they rushed to sift through our stuff. Some folks were almost professional in their approach: they mapped out every sale in town, knew exactly what they were searching for and split up to cover more ground in less time.

Zig Ziglar is an author and motivational speaker who has made a handsome living for decades by telling his audience, “If life hands you a lemon, make lemonade.” The ability to turn trash into treasure has paid a king’s ransom for those with the right eye.

Martha Lenard is a high school classmate who recently discovered some of that hidden treasure, and she wasn’t even looking for it. The Lenard’s own their own landscaping and lawn maintenance business near Tulsa, Okla., but last week she traveled to tiny Hallet, Okla., to pay a visit on a retired couple.

Hallet is one of those towns where they only have one flashing light, and Martha went there to show the owners of a palatial paradise some outside fountains, the last decision before a massive landscaping project commenced. While sitting in their elegant living room, she couldn’t take her eyes off the kitchen cabinets.

When the owner noticed that Martha was gawking, she said, “Aren’t they gorgeous?” When Martha agreed, she learned, as Paul Harvey would say, “the rest of the story.”

Way back in the mid-’50s, this couple set up their own business, the first portable toilet business in the state. In the days before plastic, they needed wood that would withstand the abuse, so they chose red oak. Years later, when plastic became the standard, they couldn’t tolerate the thought of pitching all the red oak. Instead, they recycled it.

Yep, those gorgeous kitchen cabinets were fashioned from recycled portable toilets.

Jeremiah’s generation had to be reminded that God was in the business of rejuvenating what the world destroyed. He went to the potter’s house and found him working at the wheel, “but the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him” (Jeremiah 18:4, NIV).

Be careful before you discard your junk. Something old is something new to somebody, somewhere.

Tony Thomas is a church pastor, a high school basketball coach and author of “A Smidgeon of Religion.” He can be reached through the newspaper at ptnews@pharostribune.com