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!

A Beautiful Woman

About a week ago I met an absolutely BEAUTIFUL person.  I was sitting with my group at Panera when this sweet older woman walked into our table.  We were mid-conversation and stopped as she asked very sweetly something along the lines of “Can you tell me to get to the front counter?”  As I looked down I saw that she was holding a white cane (for visually impaired people).  It jogged my memory of a little earlier that morning when the Panera worker had been walking her to the table.

We were in the middle of a really good conversation- we stopped of course and gave her directions and she was so grateful and went on her way.  As we continued I couldn’t help but watch her, just to make sure she made it.  My directions were not the best and as she got to the end of an aisle she was headed for another table.  Feeling responsible, I excused myself and ran over to catch up to her, told her she was not quite there yet, and offered my arm.  As we got to the front she said that Allison would help her, so I asked for Allison but the manager came out and greeted her by name saying she would help my friend. 

As I walked back to my table I couldn’t help but feel an amazing sense of joy from this woman.  She couldn’t see, but instead of being bitter and avoiding the world, she was out smiling and talking and living.  She was very aware of the fact that she needed help and couldn’t do everything on her own but was humble and open to asking and receiving help from whomever.  The workers knew her name and she knew theirs.

What an inspiring woman.  The approximate 3 minutes I had the blessing to spend with her lit up my day.  It really hit me how different I am and would be in her situation… The fact that I can see sometimes isolates and removes me from the people around me.  When I don’t know what to do or where to go I try and figure it out on my own, asking others only as a last resort.  I don’t want to appear “helpless”-- I focus more on how they might perceive me instead of accepting I cannot do it on my own.  Her lack of physical vision gives such a clearer spiritual vision- we cannot do it on our own.  I deny the simple truth that sometimes we all need help and can ask someone else.  God gives us friends and community for this reason- so we can lean on one another, but in order to do that you need to be willing to admit that you need it.  It was such a blessing to help this woman and I am sure there are so many people I have denied the blessing of helping me when I am in need because I am too proud to ask. 

This woman was absolutely beautiful because she was secure in who she was and in the fact that she can’t make it without help.  She has trust and humility to be able to get help from those around her, and instead of letting it bring her down she was such a joyful lady.  Beautiful and inspiring. 

18 by Steve Moakler

(Link to youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHXivM4TXio)

You’re beautiful

With the shiniest diamonds in your ears

You can’t hear your mother – she’s crying in the other room

She knows it won’t be okay

Farther from her daughter with the coming of each day

So you pick up your books, that you never read

Run off to school like a good drama queen

Do you care where you’re going, or know where you’ve been?

Barely a woman, you’re 18 years in

Our faith is placed in second chances

As the angel and her demon dance it’s

Like you’re 18 years in with no way out

And you’re the star of the story you don’t care about

Just a little girl in a bigger world turned upside-down

Well, don’t’ you throw it all away when no one’s here to pull you out

Who’s gonna pull you out?

You’re beautiful

with your brand new clothes

Like armor from your head, from your head to your toes

You keep it all inside so that nobody knows

Your heart’s on fire, people blind to the glow.

And all these boys are thirsty for your outsides

You never care to ever let the right ones in

They’re taking from you something that is sacred

I‘ve watched a car crash but I just can’t take this

Our faith is placed in second chances

As the angel and her demons dance

And when you’re safe and sound inside your bed

I know you dream of things bigger than the things that you let live

When you’re safe and sound inside your bed

I know you dream of things I, I know you dream 18 years in

Only 18 years in with no way out

And you’re the star of the story you don’t care about

Just a little girl in a bigger world turned upside-down

Well, don’t’ you throw it all away when no one’s here to pull you out

This is such a powerful message.  It has not been that song since I was 18 and as I reflect on how I have grown in these past couple years, I want to reach out to those I see believing the lies I did at that age.  My heart in writing this is to help encourage the people that I love to be free from the meaningless lies Satan is telling them- believing that they are not beautiful… not good enough… that they need to do what everybody around them is doing… that they aren’t special. 

While all the blame cannot be placed on “culture”, there are soooo many things that are backwards and messed up that our society tells us are “important” and that you “need to have/do”.  These lies are planted in our minds from a very young age- in TV shows, commercials, billboards, online… and as we enter into our teen years we start to live them out whether through relationships, with our money, with our time without even realizing why we are doing it.  I know it because this is what I did and am still struggling to distinguish between- what is right in God’s eyes versus what I have been told/influenced to do.

I love how this song shows that so many of us are living to keep up an image- one that is typically very different from the way we are feeling on the inside.  The way we dress (diamonds in your ears), the new clothes that are used like “armor” to protect us from standing out so that people won’t see us, and on the inside our hearts are on fire- wanting something more but people are blind to that glow because we cover it up to look the same as everyone else.  It is as if our biggest fear is standing out- especially for what we believe, and what we really want.

“Do you care where you’re going, or know where you’ve been?”

I love this question because it shows how we blindly go through the motions- through the routines just to keep up.  “Do you know where you’ve been?”  When we go places intentionally we know where we have been- and why… but when we are just going through motions and staying with the crowd it is so easy to get lost and not even know where we have been anymore.  We lose our self- and don’t even care where it is we are headed so long as we are with everyone else and not standing out- even if we think of feel differently.  We get so caught up in staying with the appearance that we start to feel like “there is no way out”, and yet inside we long for something more.  You have become “the star of a story you don’t care about”- it isn’t even about the things you want anymore- how sad is it to not even care about your own story, because you have given it to the crowd to write?

These things were not meant to fill us or sustain us- only God can fill that void and that longing.  He is the only one who can pull us out of it all.  Clothing, relationships, social status- none of those things can sustainably fulfill us.  The joy they bring us is momentary and fleeting- hence the need to keep going back for more and seek after style that is forever changing.

“And when you’re safe and sound inside your bed

I know you dream of things bigger than the things that you let live.”

And the sad part is that we all long for more- we all dream of these bigger things that we stifle to fit in… so know that you aren’t weird or different.  Take back your story and start to let your dreams shine.  Encourage one another instead of tearing one another down- God wants so much more for you, fill yourself with Him.