Taking Out the Trash

Fridays are trash pick-up days in our neighborhood.  On Friday I went through the normal routine of emptying wastebaskets from the bedrooms, bathrooms, office and kitchen. I’ve been clearing out files, shredding papers, and emptying drawers in my office so there was a lot of trash this week. Some things had been taking up space just because… they were once useful… they evoked memories of former employments or earlier stages of life… I had worked hard to produce these works and assemble these files … they meant something to me. But those periods of my life are over and these items are no longer being used.  

I felt lighter, freer once the large trash carts were sitting at the curb. And then I had an epiphany! Until the trash was taken out to the curb there was still the possibility that I would retrieve some items and put them back in the cabinet. I could still change my mind and allow them back in

Sometimes we acquire habits or behaviors that distract us from doing the important things. Sometimes we hang onto things from the past that hold us back from being the person God wants us to be in the present.  Sometimes by clinging to what once was meaningful and precious, we miss out on the new thing God wants to put within our grasp. Those past things may be bitter or sweet. They may need to be confessed and repented of or remembered with fondness. But they must not be hindrances to the ministry God has waiting for us now.

The Apostle Paul knew something about this. He wrote “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13,14

The writer of Hebrews wrote, “…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…” Hebrews 12:1

And so, whether good or bad, it is time to pare down, eliminating things that distract me from moving forward with what God has for me to do now.

I’ll sign off for now. Friday’s coming and I have more trash to take out.

Press on,

Ruth