Personal Dumpsters

I have a personal dumpster. Actually, I have two. The city gave each homeowner a set of gargantuan dumpsters for trash and recycling. These replace reasonable-sized garbage cans and recycling bins. Now the thunderous roll of dumpsters is heard echoing throughout the neighborhood twice each week. An automatic garbage collection truck screeches to a halt outside each home, lowers a claw-like mechanism, snatches the dumpster from the curb, dumps the debris hastily into the truck, and returns the monstrous container akimbo to the curb (sometimes it's akimbo; I just wanted to use that word today).

We neighborhood dwellers then obediently roll our empty personal dumpsters back to their nesting places. I have to open the garage door to put mine back. It doesn't fit through the little side door.

That baby holds a lot of garbage. Not a bad deal, really. I can load it up with some pretty nasty stuff. It all fits inside. When Wednesday comes, it's all gone. Time for a new beginning.

When I read the Bible, I hear that God gives you a personal dumpster! Ephesians 4:31-32 says, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."

That sounds like some serious dumpster action. Load up Jesus with all the refuse of your life. He carts it away through His action for you--living, suffering, bleeding, dying, and rising. Each day, through Word and Sacrament, you have an empty dumpster, a new beginning, a lightened life.

Why, you can even take some of the trash from others and empty their dumpsters by forgiving them "as in Christ God forgave you."

Sounds like a mission, doesn't it? Sounds like a calling. Sounds like something grateful believers do. Sounds like a reason to reach out into a sin-refuse-cluttered world with what the world needs most.

Let the thunderous roll be heard--as you and all the redeemed people of God make the world a cleaner place with His grace!