"Digging In The Trash"

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before."  Philippians 3:13

 

We are about to "close the book" on another year.  Soon 2017 will be just a memory.  As we stand on the threshold of a new year, we have to take inventory and decide what will we take with us on this journey into the new year.  What bags will we take?  What will we bring with us from the last year into the next one?  What will we keep and what will we discard?  What can be left behind? 

 

There is baggage that we don't need to carry with us into the new year.  There are some things that need to be "trashed"-- not recycled, not repurposed, not renovated.  Those things need to be placed in a bag and sent to the trash where they are completely removed from your life. 

Often, what we do is place them in a bag for the trash and then later find ourselves digging in the trash to try to retrieve them.  I have done that in the natural.  If I can't find something I will dig through the trash to see if I accidently threw it away.  I have also done it spiritually.  I have "thrown away" guilt from my mistakes, hurt from the unkind actions of others, condemnation for not doing the things I should have done or doing the things I should not have done, offenses that have come my way or self-pity, fears, grievances, etc., and later find myself digging through the trash to try to retrieve them.

Does this sound familiar?  Have you done the same?  Are you going to do it again this year?  Or will you place the things that are "trash" at the foot of the cross and ask the Lord to "incinerate" it-- remove it from you as far as the east is from the west; burn it to ashes; completely destroy it; consume it by His holy fire of purification?  The choice is yours.  The Lord didn't call us to be trash collectors or trash diggers.  He has something better and new for us, but we have to leave the trash behind.

Have a great day.  Are you a trash digger?  Leave it in the trash.