The Weekly Word: How to use a trash can

By The Rev. Daniel Larson, Cross Lutheran Church (ELS), Charles City

A newspaper editor once said, “A wise use of the garbage can is the secret to successful editing.” However, a wise use of the garbage can is not only the secret to successful editing, it really is the secret to successful living as well.

You see, so many of us are weighed down with the “trash” of our lives that should have been thrown away a long time ago.

This trash consists of things like our old worries, grudges against our neighbors and relatives, and recurring resentments and hatreds that fester inside us.

Such trash should have been discarded long ago, but instead has been held onto and allowed to grow. It seems that oftentimes we do not want to let these things go.

So, where can we throw this trash that accumulates in our lives? There is only one place to bring it — only one place for our worries, grudges, resentments and all the other sins of our daily lives. And that place is the trash can!

As with all the other garbage that gets thrown away from day to day, why would we want the smelly, rotten sins of our past to stink up a new day of God’s grace to us? And just think what a difference it would make for our families, jobs, schools, churches, and our society, if each of us learned to rid our lives of such trash.

What can we do so that we do not become hoarders of our sins, worries and hatred?

This is what the Bible tells us to do: “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles” (Hebrews 12:1).

God does not want us to carry our own sins, but to throw them away, for Jesus’ sake. Happy is the person who has learned to throw off all the worries, grudges, resentments and sins of their life. Such a person can start and finish each day unburdened and free from being buried in trash.

This is something the Apostle Paul understood when he wrote, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

So, don’t let the sins and trash of your life build up any longer, but in contrition and repentance, daily dispose of these things at the foot of the cross.

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You are invited to join us at Cross Lutheran Church each Sunday as we continue to learn how God builds us up in the faith of Christ.