Skip to main content

Where Are You Putting Your Garbage?


  You may remember the saga of the Morbo 4000 from a few years ago.  It was a garbage barge that was set to take it load of 3000 pounds of refuse from New York City to North Carolina.  The problem was they didn’t want to take. So the boat tried to sail back to New York but it wasn’t allowed there either and thus it‘s saga began.  The longer it roamed the worse it got.  Rumors that the barge was carrying all sorts of hazardous materials made the situation more difficult to resolve. The barge would be rejected by over a dozen places, even being chased away with warplanes on two occasions, and traveled over 6000 miles looking for a place to unload.  Eventually, the company owning the boat went bankrupt and the boat was destroyed with it's cargo.  Nobody wanted all that garbage.

  Places are getting stingier about accepting garbage. I know my folks have had a time getting rid of bigger trash items since the live in the country and the area landfill is for city residents only. Where do you dump your junk? It has to go somewhere? Some have resorted to just finding an empty space on a  back road since they can’t get it to the proper place? It’s not right but what do you do?

  It is not just the content of the trash can that people are looking to unload; it is also the negative things in our psyche. The worries, the stress, the slights, the frustrations, the emotional baggage of life. The emotions we that we need to vent, clean out, or cast away. 

  Sadly, some are without any place to release that turmoil, so the just chunk it anywhere.  Maybe they make every conversation an emotional dumping ground. Perhaps they litter online, using social media as way to vent their worries and sadness.  Some simply let it pile up in their lives till it crushes them in emotional despair.   If only we had a place to cast it all!   Oh, but we do!

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
1 Peter 5:6-7

  God is able to handle our needs. Prayer is the means for us to properly deal with those emotions.  While friends and family might help with the load, none of them have the capacity God does.  The paradox is the more we try to unload to other sources, the harder we find it to do so. The more we vent to others the less likely they will listen to us. God however is always there when we need him, no matter how much we need to unload.

  Our worries, our fears, our hurts need to be handled, but don’t just throw them anywhere. Put them in the best place to handle them, so it doesn’t become a burden to others. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Until Midnight

    In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back.       I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul.   Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...

The Mighty Gulf

  It is hard to get people on two sides of an issue to come together. Each has their own viewpoint, their perceptive, their own foibles, their own understanding.  To gain any common ground there must be something in common. Something or someone that can bridge the gulf between the two.   Could there be a greater gulf than there was between God and man? How could a holy perfect God find a way to connect to the fallen, imperfect mankind? How can one without temptation connect to those who are beset by it? How could limited mortal beings understand an omnipotent eternal God?   In 1 Timothy 2:5, we read, “ For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus .” The phrase mediator here describes a person that bridges the gap, a go-between. Jesus was one who could stand in both worlds. A perfect holy one who can understand our temptations, a man who would die yet live eternally, One who was God yet became flesh and dwelt among us. ...

You Are Not Getting Away With It

  It is hard to find a place in New York City to park unless you are a United Nations diplomat. They park wherever they want.   It’s not that they are allowed to but their diplomatic immunity keeps them from paying the cost. In one year alone the diplomats racked up 143,508 parking summonses, which would have cost them $15.8 million. Yet, because of the immunity, the punishments they incur are not enforced. So, they tend to park very badly   Solomon recognized this tendency. In Ecclesiastes 8:11he writes; “ Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil .” If we do not pay for our wrongs quickly, we tend to think they are OK.  This however is a terrible practice to have in our lives. In Romans 2:4-6, Paul warns us about the danger when we look at God’s tolerance and patience of our sin as acceptance. He warns it will make things worse for us in judgment since God wi...