The Garbage Man

This should have been posted in December but I let time get away from me… Lo siento!

Whenever I think of trash collecting I always think of that song- thanks Simpsons… 

While driving to work I pass a local landfill so I see lots of trash trucks on my morning commute.  One day I was driving behind one because we get off on the same exit, hoping nothing gross flew out and landed on my windshield, when a crazy God thought hit me… (well it wasn’t too crazy because God had also been teaching me a lot about confession recently)

Thought: It is so obvious to us that you need to take your garbage out- you acknowledge it is there, it is gross, it is smelly, and it needs to go.  Why do we not see our sin and confession in the same way?

We have trash pick-up once a week and you don’t want to miss it, so taking trash out is a weekly “religious”event”.  Come ____day night we are getting the trash from the whole house, putting it in the cans, and putting those cans on the curb.  If it is so easy for us to see (and smell) the need to do it with physical trash- why don’t we do it with our spiritual trash?  Don’t you think that we build up trash throughout the week that needs to go- hurtful comments we made or that were made about us, judging people around us, cutting someone off?  The list could go on and on and varies depending on the week’s events, but the point is that we should make cleaning up that trash part of our weekly routine, even daily!  Sometimes it may just be a time of prayerful reflection between you and God before church or whenever- sometimes it may need to be with somebody(ies) else… but we don’t want to keep building up that stinky nasty gross stuff inside of us until there is no room left for the good- in the same way we take it out of our house so that it doesn’t stay in there and rot/take up space.

Let God be your garbage man- regularly take your trash to Him so he can take it away from you and make you all fresh and clean again.

“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”  -James 5:16

Also came across this little gem for your viewing pleasures:

SH3

I found out today that it is official- my ACL is blown out and I need to get surgery.  : / << That face is because I have never really had surgery and it makes me feel all queasy inside.  I have really been trying to pray about the whole situation and I have received some peace knowing that the God who designed and created each and every part of me… the one who knows my insides- thoughts and organs- better than any surgeon/doctor/therapist/psychologist etc. ever could is in control.  If he wanted to he could put my ACL back in less than a second, so there is definitely purpose to where he has me and what he has allowed to happen in this temporary earthly body.

I don’t know if you have ever experienced such a thing (I hope you have not and never will) but it is weird.  It hurt at first, but most of the physical pain has subsided now.  The trouble is lack of stability.  It is weird… I am building confidence back in my knee but with the injury fresh in my mind and it still being somewhat swollen- I feel like it could just slide out at any moment (which obviously doesn’t build mental confidence in my knee).

Sadly it made me realize that is kind of how my walk with God has gotten without realizing it.  There are “two legs” in this image of my spiritual body- the first leg is my personal relationship with Christ and the other leg is Christian community- one stable leg and one “torn ACL”.  It has been easier to control my personal time with God recently- but through this injury it is a reminder that that is not enough to stand on.  I can’t just hop everywhere on that- my leg gets tired and burns out- it needs to be refreshed and supplemented with community as well.  Recently that has been quite unstable for me which makes it hard to want to stand on it, but I am being reminded that I need both.  One just will not due, you can’t walk with one leg… you just kind of hop or crutch and it is really tiring.

So hopefully on this journey of physical recovery, it will also be one to reconstruct my spiritual ACL as well!