A Swiss driver ended up in the garbage after plunging 30 feet into a bunker at a green recycling centre. Police say the 65-year-old motorist did something that all drivers must be in fear of - hit the accelerator instead of the brake. This resulted in him shooting off the edge, as he backed up, into the trash below at the refuse centre in Bazenheid, Switzerland. Firefighters had to winch shocked Heiner Mollard to safety for treatment for cuts and bruises. To add insult to injury, Mr Mollard was fined the equivalent of £50 [$75 USD] by the garbage site owners for leaving an "inappropriate item" in a recycling bin. Garbage men, sanitation engineers, trash collectors…whatever you choose to call them, the people who remove our rubbish are unsung heroes. They take care of what others shun—the smelly, discarded, unusable waste of life. Only a crazy person would chase after a truck and try and grab their garbage back out because that person could not simply part with it. Yet spiritually that is what we do all the time. We cling to what’s hurt us. We haul around the wrongs that God has already forgiven. We hold on to regrets. Then, we open our trash bags and paw through them
We may even put our favorite discards on display. But eventually, our bags of guilt, shame, pain, sorrows are all worn to threads. No wonder at times those around us start steering clear of our company! Like this man (show pic on screen of man in garbage) If someone has hurt you, intentionally or not, we try to reconcile. We take the time to try and explain how we feel. We accept responsibility for any part we have played in it, apologize and then we listen to what the other person has to say. If that person isn’t willing to work things out, you still forgive them, the way that God forgives us—without conditions. If he or she isn’t interested in fixing things, you still do the exact same thing. Forgive! Easy to do? No. The right thing to do? ALWAYS. Just because that’s what God asks of us doesn’t mean it isn’t tempting to pick up a little something as you leave. It is called a grudge. But the only thing that a grudge changes is you. It weighs you down and can make you bitter. That bitterness can spill over into angry complaining words or maybe a self-righteous attitude. Neither of these reflects a true heart of the person God created us to be. Carry that grudge is like toting around a bag of garbage wherever you go. Our emotional garbage can render us ineffective in our homes, offices, churches and communities… like a marathon runner running with a backpack full of rocks…it can have a severe impact on our lives and on our abilities to finish the race! Now, when it comes to dealing with our emotional garbage many of us have a challenge because we either deny the obvious, pretend everything is ok, or are blinded to our issues. So we may find ourselves wearing a mask to hide what is going on inside. Talking from experience, it takes more effort to keep up the façade than in dealing with the excess weight of our garbage! I decided to “google” garbage collection and discovered that many of our answers to our problems were described there. Quote: “Garbage collection is a form of automatic memory management. The collector attempts to reclaim garbage or memories occupied by objects that are no longer in use.” This garbage collection is in relation to computers, but doesn’t it sound like us as humans…those who hold on to our garbage…things that are no longer in use but we hold on to anyway! It continues to tell us that in “manual memory management the programmer tries to remove objects and return them back to the memory system. These methods to manage resources, particularly destructors….causes the work of reclaiming those resources.” In other words when we are trying to solve our problems by ourselves, we may be looking at retrieving garbage that can be destructive…Ones that we then try to hold on to once again. Our minds are complex creations. God entrusts us with freedom to choose how to use it, like a computer our minds follow the GIGO principle: Garbage in-Garbage out. So what is the answer? Simply put, we need to get God involved. When it comes to dealing with our garbage some of us leave Him out of the loop. We look to ourselves to “fix” things, to take care of our garbage. And so we try this…and then we try that. But let me ask you…when last did you sincerely bring that burden, that garbage to God? Have you spoken to him about how you are feeling or what you are going through? These sound so basic, but how often do we do it? I remember most of the time how I tell God everything and even trust Him for great things to happen. However, How often do I leave matters of the heart out of the discussion? Is it because I think HE doesn’t care? Is it because my issues are trivial in comparison to what I perceive to be more important like giants to slay, souls to be saved, making peace for the world? Or maybe, it is because I didn’t believe that God could heal my wounded heart and get rid of the garbage that was building up (even though I believe He heals) I honestly don’t know. But the fact remains, God cares about the big and little things in our lives, every piece of garbage that causes us to smell and be weighed down. Even the computer definition of garbage collections states :The garbage collector (us) consumes resources and decides which memory to free, even though the programmer (God) may have already done this.” Therefore, we need to consider adopting a God-centered approach for we cannot accomplish anything apart from him (John 15:5) Instead of trying to fill our void with precarious behaviors, let’s allow God in. After all, His ways are proven and are worthy to be trusted (Psalm 33:4) Let’s let Him take care of things. But how do we get Him involved? WE do this through prayer, through the reading of His Word and continually seeking Him for insight and guidance as He may have things to reveal to us. By reading the Bible, it fills our minds with good things, not garbage. It may be that HE wants us to forgive that person who wounded our heart. Maybe there is a specific action He wants us to take such as seeking help or talking to someone as HE told us in James 5:13-16. Whatever it is, our answers lie with Him. God offers Himself for the ignoble task of removing our rubbish once and for all. There’s no recycling plan or dump you can visit. Once you give it to Him it is gone for good. Allow Him to free you permanently from all that heavily weighs you down. Change the GIGO from Garbage in- Garbage out to “God in-Good out”. But above all, give it to God. Trash day is here! Amen