Are you living in a dump?

One thing that really stood out to me in India was the amount of trash everywhere. It was unbelievable. People lived right next to trash dumps, with animals foraging through them to find food and children making them their playground. “Why don’t they do something about it?” I thought. “Why don’t they clean this place up?” Little did I know these questions would extend beyond India’s borders into my own backyard.

Liane and I live in a condo that sits on the forest’s edge in a small, suburban town. It is a “clean” place by many standards, but the other day, as I was walking the sidewalk to our front door, I noticed trash sprinkled throughout the woods. I’ve seen this trash many times, but never thought twice about it. Today was different. Something clicked in my head. I couldn’t believe there was trash right outside my home. How could I go to India and judge them for their trash, when there was trash right outside my door that I’ve been walking by for almost a year?

I decided I would pick up the trash myself. I got inside and quickly ordered a gopher-grab-it arm. I was determined to not be a man that just walks by.

Yesterday, I took my grabber arm, a few garbage bags and went to work. What I found was surprising. The more I looked, the more trash I found. There were the obvious pieces of trash that I could see walking home each day. But under the leaves and dirt, was so much more: glass bottles, aluminum foil, beer cans and plastic of all kinds. Some of the plastic was so brittle that every time I tried to grab it, it would crack and break into smaller pieces, making my job more difficult. Then there was my least favorite: styrofoam. Every time I found styrofoam my heart cringed. Since elementary school, it has been ingrained in my being that styrofoam would last F O R E V E R. However, even more disturbing than the styrofoam, I found a line of Christmas lights and pieces of a fake Christmas tree. Someone literally threw a fake tree with lights on into the woods.

I lived right next to a trash dump.

The reason there was so much trash in India is the same reason why there was trash outside my door. We are all consumed by our “own little world” that we are too busy to pick up a piece of trash or recover our plastic bag after it flew off in the wind. We think, “It doesn’t matter, someone else will do it.” But “someone else” never does it because everyone is thinking the same thing. After time, each little piece of trash begins to pile up until we find ourselves living in a dump. How did this happen? Years of collective passivity and neglect.

What are you walking by in your life? It can be something external like a coworker making racial comments at work or a relationship that you know needs to be mended. On the other hand, it might even be something internal. For example, maybe you are dealing with feelings of shame and condemnation or you are having a hard time forgiving people that have hurt you. You think to yourself, “I’ll deal with it later…it’s nothing.” Regardless of what you think, the trash is starting to pile up. Don’t let it become a dump. Don’t just keep walking by!

You may not know where to start and I think that’s true for a lot of us. What we all need is for an external help. If I left the woods alone, it wouldn’t clean itself. It only became clean as the result of my determined resolve. And the same is true with us. God saw the state of humanity, living in the trash dump of sin. He saw all of our garbage: the pain, broken relationships, addictions, selfishness, pride, greed, envy, confusion…the list can go on. But it doesn’t matter what the trash is because God chose to not walk by. He didn’t wait for someone else to bring a solution. He is the solution and he sacrificed himself on the cross to cleanse us. He takes our trash and gives us His life of cleanliness. How amazing is that!

How much longer do you want to live in a dump? You were never made to. God has so much more for you.

If this resonates with you, why don’t you try praying this simple prayer. Lord Jesus, I ask that you would clean the trash out of my life. Amen.

Be blessed.

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