Carrying life's garbage

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”

~Psalm 51:10

This Saturday, I loaded up garbage at the house and headed to the dump. We don’t have regular pick up at the house and have to transport it the few miles out of town to the local convenience center a few times a month.

What I failed to connect in my brain was, it being Veteran’s Day, the convenience centers would be closed.

It was only after I got to the entrance and noticed the closed gates that I made that mental connection. That meant I had to turn around, take all of that garbage back home and unload it, to be hauled away another day.

First off, let me say, I understand the importance of celebrating Veteran’s Day. I’m the granddaughter of a veteran, the niece of other veterans and I have friends and other loved ones who are veterans. I don’t mean to negate the importance of that day at all. It just threw me off this year, as it was a Saturday and the first day I’ve not covered local Veteran’s Day events in a long while.

Anyway, as I turned around and headed home, it struck me as how it was a metaphor for what we do with God.

Don’t get me wrong, God never closes the gates on us. His doors are always open to us.

But how often do we go to the gates, loaded with the garbage of our lives, only to turn around and take it back?

For some reason, we think God only wants the pristine side of us, the best we can give Him, but that’s not true. God wants all of us — good, bad, ugly, greedy, selfish, sinful, hateful, unkind and on and on. He wants all of us.

And He wants us to lay it all down before Him. God doesn’t want us to bring it to Him only to say, “Psych” and take it all back.

That’s not how it works.

For starters, God never asked anyone to clean themselves up first. When He commands us to come, He means to come right then. That means, whatever is going on in our lives, we bring to God.

“And another of his disciples said unto Him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.

But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.”

~Matthew 8:21-22 KJV

We can’t try to clean up our own garbage. That would be like brushing your teeth with Oreos. While it sounds tasty, it doesn’t quite do the trick.

We have to bring all of our stuff to God and turn it over. We have to lay it down at His feet and trust that He will take it all — the good, the bad and everything in between, use in the ways that glorify Him and get rid of the rest.

We must lay it all down.

“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

~Matthew 8:24-26

God alone can clean us up.

He can take it and make it better than we ever dreamed. We just have to turn it over to God.

Are you carrying around garbage?