It’s Wednesday, sweet friends. I don’t know what that means for you. For me, however, it means trash day.

I find trash day to be a funny thing. I mean, I want it to come because a family of seven produces a whole. lot. of. trash. Yet, I dread the whole trash removal process. The emptying of the various household trash cans. The attempt to make it all fit in the big, green receptacle which always seems to smell like death. The art of rolling it to the curb while only touching it with the tips of your fingers because, hello, it’s a large pile of trash that smells like death. 

I began thinking about this last night as I kept my husband awake until 2:00 a.m. purging my mind of all the worries I had been hoarding for several weeks. See, we all have trash. We all have issues that we need to tie up, take to the curb and leave. It’s not always that easy, is it? We just want to hold on to our trash and pretend that it doesn’t stink. Sometimes, however, we need someone to speak truth. Someone must stand up and say the emperor has no clothes or, in our case, tell us that our trash does stink.

I started thinking about why it is so difficult to be honest about the trash in our lives. Why are we so desperate to appear put together and, well, trash-less? Here is what I have come up with.

1. I can’t stand my own trash, so I can only imagine that others are totally grossed out by it. The truth, however, is that our trash is not that different. If we, in the body of Christ, could be honest with each other – we would find that my trash looks an awful lot like yours.
2. It’s usually more than I can handle on my own. Life was not meant to be a solo. We need each other. Life is messy and we can’t drag all of our trash to the curb on our own.
3. Right now, my bathroom trash cans are full because it just seemed like too much work to drag it all out at once. We want to get rid of a little trash and, still, hang on to a little trash. It just doesn’t work that way. We must give it all to Him knowing that He can dispose of it properly.
4. I never want to be seen actually rolling the can to the curb because I am often embarrassed by the amount of trash. Have I already said that life is messy? Because it totally is messy and sticky and smelly. Satan is all about the shame game. He wants you to hide your trash and be embarrassed by it. Christ is all about grace. He wants you to pour out your trash before Him and let Him make it beautiful.
5. I never deal with the trash on Tuesday evening. That would be the sensible thing to do. No, I wait until Wednesday morning when the kids are demanding breakfast, the baby is crying, I’m in my pajamas and I can hear the garbage truck a couple of doors down. Don’t do that. Deal with it before it becomes an issue. Ya feel me?
6. Once you have taken something to the curb, you don’t go back and dig through the trash to find it. At least, you should not do that. Once you hand it over to God, there are no take-backs. It’s His. Let it be.

So, today, let’s just be honest and quit pretending that we don’t all have trash. ‘Kay? Let’s pause and ask God to reveal those things that we need to remove from our hearts, minds and homes. You have trash and it’s okay because I do, too. But, if we would just open up to one another, we could work together and take it to the curb.

*Repost from the archives