Everybody has little quirks. Yes quirks…you know those peculiar aspect of a person’s character or behaviour. Some are very cute and loveable while others are downright disgusting. Whilst others are in the middle and leave you feeling quite ambivalent about them. In essence, they are neither here nor there.
Today I want to share with you one of my little quirks. It’s something that my family find incomprehensible and perhaps downright frustrating at times. Here goes…I don’t intentionally litter, not even under peer pressure. If I try, I feel downright guilty about it. This is because I can totally visualize the person who will have to bend down and clean up the mess that I left behind and this always leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I’m so bad…or good (depends on how you look at it 🤷 ), I will travel with my trash in my handbag or hand, back to my home, if there is no trash can around. This is even if I have to hold it for hours. I’m not throwing it on the sidewalk or through the car window. I just won’t.
Now you may be wondering why I am telling you this. My introspection threw me for a loop recently. Recently, as I was about to leave a beach, I picked up the empty packages of the snacks I had eaten. Looking around I didn’t spy a bin and determined that I would just have to carry my trash with me until I found a trash can to throw it in. My companions immediately begun to urge me to toss it on the ground and walk away but I held firm.
I was in the car and headed for home when I noticed that I still held my trash firmly in my grip. In fact, I had now added a beer bottle.
As I stared down at my lap, I had the strangest thought: “You are so good at refraining from littering in the physical sense but you suck at it in the emotional, spiritual and emotional realm.”
I pondered the thought. How many times have I made sure that my physical trash landed in a bin but allowed myself to be littered with trash on an emotional, mental and spiritual level?
My answer was simple: “Too many times.” I’ve allowed the circumstances of life to build and leave it scum marks and residue on me. Every time I held on to something that I was meant to let go of, I became more polluted.
It’s such a sad thing to realize how polluted our hearts, minds and spirits can become if we allow ourselves to be polluted by the trash of life. And there are so many types of trash and opportunities to litter ourselves. There is the trash of unforgiveness. There is the trash of holding on to offenses. There is the trash of what we allow to take hold of our minds such as our generational and cultural mindsets. And what about our spirits that are littered with fear, doubts, worry, etc.
And the thing we overlook is that when we are filled and overflowing with trash, we spill on and pollute others. And eventually, anything overflowing with trash is not considered useable or appealing unless it is emptied and cleansed.
1 Corinthians 15:33
Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good character.
Will you start putting the trash into the trash can. Will you stop littering yourselves or allowing yourselves to be polluted by the trash of life and allow, Christ, the Ultimate Garbageman to pinpoint, empty and clean up the trash in our lives.
1 John 1:9 ESV
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
