Trash, Grace, and God's Steadfast Love

The Steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3: 22-23

Today is one of the high points of my week.  It is trash day!  I love the feeling of gathering all my trash for the week, putting it into containers, and taking it to the curb.  I know it sounds crazy, but I do love it!

Why do I like trash day so much?  I love getting rid of all the mess, all the excess, all the left-overs, and all that I need to get rid of.  To me it feels cleansing.  It is a regular symbolic cleansing of my garage of all the messy, stinky leftovers from a busy week.  Trash day gives me a renewal on life!

I am sure to some this sounds crazy.  Even as I share my joy in trash day, I wonder how some will understand it.  Let me try to explain why I get such joy.  To do so I will use what could be taken as a sexist description I heard from a marriage seminar somewhere.  Please give me the grace to hang with me until I explain.

I have heard it said that men are like filing cabinets and women are like white boards.  What is meant by this is that men can deal with an issue or problem.  When we are done, we file it away and it does not bother us any more.  We open the next file and put the stress of the last one behind us.  

Meanwhile, women are like a white board with all the issues and problem visible.  A woman may focus on one issue, but all are present so as the white board fills up so does their stress level.  Furthermore, when a problem is continuing or weekly it becomes an issue that never gets erased.  It becomes a never ending burden.

I must admit that I have met men who are like whiteboards and women who are like filing cabinets.   Yet, I think there is at least a measure of truth in the general personality description given in the marriage seminar.  At least it works in my household!  Also notice that it means that women are much better multi-taskers while men can compartmentalize so much that they miss important details.  This is another trait of my household!

So with the image of trash day and filing cabinets in place, let me explain today's joy.  For me, trash day is representative of all the junk in my life.  Over the course of a day or a week, I have many different problems, issues, and stresses in which I must process.  What I try to do is deal with the issue and move on.  I also try to put the stress into one file and put it away.  

The problem is that sometimes the stress file just stays open on my desk!  How do I deal with it?  I must ask for God's help.  There have been times in my life when my stress file was so big that I cannot close it or even take it over to the filing cabinet!  Thankfully, after while, I cried out to God for mercy and He helped me.

I have learned that it is best never to allow the junk of life to build up.  As I age, I also call upon the Lord quicker.  Every Monday is trash day.  As I take out the trash, I think of all the junk from the past week: the bad decisions, the hurtful words, the financial questions, the illnesses, and all the rest.  I take the garbage to the end of the drive, and I ask God to take the trash out of my life.  The sight of the empty cans confirms the Lord's promises!

Today's passage affirms that I do not need to wait until Monday to do this.  The mercies of the Lord are new every morning.  As I come into His presence, I hold fast to this promise!  I confess my needs.   I confess my mistakes.  I ask for cleansing.  I receive His mercy and His aid in putting the past behind me.

I encourage you to look for symbolic examples of the Father's love.  Find little reminders of His grace.  As fallen people, we so easily forget the love and mercy of the Lord!  Confess this tendencies and ask for grace to be reminded.  God loves us and He wants to help clear our whiteboards and empty our filing cabinets!