Tip of My Iceberg

Who knew so much trash could accumulate in such a short period of time?

Garbage collection has become an organized definitive science. Up until the first of the year, we could put anything at the curb, and it would be picked up by our gracious sanitary engineers.

January 1st we were issued new bins that could be picked up by the arms of the new trucks. Trucks requiring only a driver to operate.

Bottom line–if it doesn’t fit in the can, it won’t go in the truck.

Since we’d been out of town, we’d missed three Friday pick-ups.

It would seem this wouldn’t be problematic because we weren’t creating trash.

Our house wasn’t empty. Our youngest was there. Friends came to stay for awhile. Trash was happening.

And I forgot to tell them about Friday trash pick-up.

Seems the onus–and the odor–was all on me.

After almost three weeks of foodstuffs baking in the pressure cooker of of a plastic garbage can in high Florida heat and humidity, we had things growing in those cans.

Mostly little flying insects that insisted on making life miserable any time I opened the lid to put something in.

There was the other problem. The cans were full.

We were still five days from pick-up.

We began to get creative with our garbage. Breaking boxes down into tiny piles of cardboard. Re-bagging some things that could be squeezed into small spaces.

Tetris for trash.

When Thursday night came and we could finally put out the garbage, we had to determine what would go in this week and what could wait for next week.

Everything with an odor was mashed in.

I was never so happy to see a garbage truck as I was Friday morning.

Problem was when the trash was gone, the residuals were left. The flying critters loved that.

Cleaning the cans wasn’t enough. Try as we might, goop remained. Pressure washing might have helped. But who had the energy for that?

We’re now putting new trash on the old. Covering up what was with what is.

We still have flying bugs.

It’s funny that life imitates trash.

I can accumulate a lot of trash in my life. What I do that hurts others. Negative attitudes. Words that injure. Choices that are just plain wrong.

The Bible calls it sin. Call it what you will, it’s me doing what I want to satisfy me.

I can clean up my act, but try as I might, I can’t get totally get rid of the nastiness that is part of who I am.

I know I’m a pretty good person. I work hard at that.

But I know what I’m capable of. What I do. What I’ve done. It’s not pretty.

I have great capacity to fill many trash cans.

Jesus reminds me that He’s aware of my trashy capabilities. They don’t surprise Him at all. He wants me to deal with them as they happen. Not allow the trash to fester and create bigger problems.

Short accounts. Not forgetting pick-up days. He’ll clean it up.

That’s His promise.

He never limits me to one day a week.

Reality? The trash is filling up. Again.