Let's Talk Trash

 

Let's talk trash. Ok, don't get nervous. I'm going to present a real-life application, here. Early one morning on my way back from my early daily walk/jog up and down the main road that runs through our neighborhood, I reached our street again and was reminded it was trash pickup day. So of course, as I headed toward our house, I passed huge garbage bins and recycle containers, intentionally left at the curb for pickup day, in front of each home. Some of the plastic bins were overflowing with garbage, the lids looked like huge mouths that couldn’t gulp down any more garbage!  It happens at our house, too!

As I kept walking, I looked at each of the beautiful two-and three-story homes with manicured lawns and flowering plants, the garbage display blatantly stole the show. Hmmmm.

I began to think about how our own garbage sitting at the curb reveals a lot about us. We can’t hide it. We all produce it. Those huge bins are filled to the brim with strong hints of what we like to eat—pizza delivery boxes, cereal boxes, plastic gallon jugs that used to contain milk, lemonade, or sweet tea; wrappers from candy and protein bars, empty cupcake containers, countless plastic water bottles peering out of the recycle bins, multiple cans from our favorite beverages, and on and on.

Our trash also exposes what we like to do with our time; empty flat screen boxes, cardboard containers that housed DIY assembled furniture, broken bicycles, worn out barbecue grills, broken lawn furniture, broken toys, sports equipment the kids have worn out and outgrown anyway.

Just as our garbage reveals a peek of what happens inside our homes, the words that come out of our mouths expose what’s really going on inside of each one of us. I didn’t come up with this observation on my own. God says it, “For the good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart, the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45).

Think about it. If we’re having a very bad attitude about something, there’s something that’s not right going on in our hearts. Jealousy? Envy? Impatience? Self-centeredness? Unforgiveness? Fear? What is it? We can’t hide it for too long. That’s the way God made us; Jesus taught this truth to His disciples, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will know them.” (Matthew 7:18-20).

Rediscover the wonder of all of God’s creatures. Think about this: happy dogs don’t bite. That is the outward fruit of a contented, grateful heart.  Over the years, our family dogs are always rescue dogs. When we bring them home, they are well loved and well cared for and they know it. They are contented, happy, (and usually very energetic), obedient dogs. They want to please us because they trust us to take good care of them. That’s an analogy of how God wants us to be with Him; fully trusting Him to tenderly and powerfully care for us, providing for our every need. So, our dogs are happy and do not bite people.

But people can “bite people’s heads off” in anger, and fear. When we have people growling at us in response to something, it’s obvious they are unhappy. Some people get so mad they bark out their responses to us. If we ever get to that rabid, vicious attitude of a stray dog, we should ask ourselves where our anger and impatience is coming from.

So, there it is: whatever is inside of us is going to eventually come out. It would be wise for us to stop hiding our garbage and bring it out in the open to be recycled by the Savior. Jesus saves. Jesus transforms lives. He can take what is old and depleted and turn it into a beautiful vessel fit for His glory. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Jesus, by His grace and mercy, turns trash into treasure for His glory and gives us purpose for our lives! “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

It doesn’t get any better than this. When you are His, you are His treasure. Recycled, restored, now and forever!

💖Polly