TALKING TRASH
What a stinking pile of garbage that is! Such a scented snipe could have been applied to anyone's home in Toronto for the past few weeks. Yep, we had an outside workers strike, which included the closing of all outside pools and most significant of all, the cessation of garbage collection.
There are some things you take for granted in this life. Garbage collection is one of them! Well, after three weeks with no collection, trust me, I will never take garbage gathering for granted again. Today, in fact, was the first day of collection for us after the striking workers were legislated back to work this past Friday. I do not exaggerate when I tell you that my heart leapt for joy when I heard the strike was over. There is something very oppressive about piles of trash heaping up wherever you go, especially when the temperature is often reaching the mid-thirties to lower forties (85-100 F).
I heard a few days ago that one boy was taking some of his family's garbage to a temporary dumping sight in a parking lot when he saw what he thought was a cat. Just as he was about to bend down and pet it, he realized it was a rat! I doubt he slept well that night. To be honest, I'm still not sleeping well after hearing about it!
Interestingly, the outside workers were sent back to work, without reaching an agreement, because in a week or so the Pope will be here for World Youth Day. They are estimating somewhere between 250,000-1,000,000 young Catholics will be descending on the streets of Toronto and they wanted to make sure the city would be seen in its best light. You can't have piles of rotting garbage lining the streets while the Pope is in town, can you?
Regardless of the reasons for the end of the strike, I'm just happy that it's over. At the same time, I am tentatively happy that it happened. Whenever a normal part of our life comes screeching to a halt, it offers us time to reflect on its importance. Here are my odorous observations from the past few weeks.
In a city situation, we are helpless against the plight of garbage. No matter how much you compost and recycle, you still have garbage to get rid of, and there is no way for you to get rid of it, unless someone comes to collect it. Some of us have large piles of rotten, stinking, fly-infested garbage leaking disgusting sludge all over the place. Others of us have nicely wrapped, neatly piled garbage, but it is still garbage, and we still need to find someone to take it. I know of one apartment building that paid an outside contractor $175 just to take away 25 bags of garbage. Imagine!
Well, it's the same way with sin. Some of us are better than others. It's true. I admit it. We're not all murderers or rapists. Some of us actually contribute to society and help others, even without religious motivation, but we still have a problem with garbage in our lives. Your garbage may not stink like mine, but it's still garbage! We all have garbage that needs to be collected. Jesus came to collect our garbage (sin) and he does it for free! We just need to admit that we can't get rid of it and then we need to depend on him to remove what we can't.
I wonder if anyone in Toronto decided this week that it wasn't worth the effort to put their garbage out by the curb? I wonder if anyone in the city said, "Ah, I'll let it pile up for a few more weeks before I deal with it." I doubt it very much! There is an urgency about getting rid of that which has accumulated. Trash is no trivial thing when it piles up! Ah, it feels so good to finally get rid of it! I wonder why we don't have the same urgency in dealing with the sludge of sin in our souls?
It's funny how we don't often look at the trash of our soul (sin) with the same kind of intensity. It doesn't seem to bother us as much as the physical trash around our feet. Even as Christians, we have a tendency to let stuff pile up in the corner of our souls, rather than using repentance to keep everything springtime fresh. It doesn't make sense to me that we would jump at the change of cleaning out our garages, but not even consider cleaning our hearts!
I am so thankful to all those who work at collecting our trash. It is a very difficult, thankless job, to be sure. I am even more thankful to the One who has collects my sins and washed them away! Excuse me while I go root around for anything else I have to leave at the foot of the cross for permanent removal! Ah, a clean soul, what a wonderful, amazing reality!
If you have any thoughts or comments, click on my name at the bottom of this page and I promise to write back.
