Taking Out the Garbage
 

Taking Out the Garbage

Read Psalm 51:1-12

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
-Psalm 51:10 (NRSV)

WHEN I walked into the kitchen, I saw a bag of garbage waiting to be taken out. As I performed the task, I considered how life can become cluttered with a lot of "garbage" - selfish desires, resentments, uncontrolled anger, wrong attitudes, unbecoming actions, harbored guilt - that troubles and hurts us and others deeply. At that point, the garbage within us needs to be taken out.

There is an appropriate time and a proper way to dispose of spiritual garbage that collects in our lives. Many centuries ago, the psalmist wrote about the messiness in his life and heart. He acknowledged its presence and the need to rid himself of it. From the depths of his heart, he cried out, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me." That prayer still works for us.

When garbage accumulates in the heart, God offers us a way to dispose of it so that serious consequences do not follow.

Howard Coop (Kentucky, USA)
Prayer
Loving God, remove the garbage from our lives and cleanse our hearts. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Thought for the Day
Each day, God offers us a clean, new heart.

Love this, a good reason to do a Fourth Step. How can you know what is trash, what no longer serves me in today, what belongs in the past and is rooted there, and I need to deal with it, in order to move on. When I lighten the load, I can walk in the Light, free from the bondage of self and my addiction, which is anything that gets between me and my God, that blocks me from the Light and keeps me in the darkness. If I can't see, I often tend to ignore or pretend it isn't there lurking in the shadows. I need to house clean daily, check the corners, under the bed, in the closets, under the rug, or any other place that I have stuffed things in my denial and lack of acceptance. It is good to do a spring cleaning and a fall cleansing to prepare for the winter blues and depression, which keep me down and not open to growth because I have blocked the light.

When I close my eyes and move around with blind vision, then I only see what I want to see, rather than the reality of the moment.