Rubbish

Photo courtesy of www.mocpages.com.

Today I was reading about rubbish. Now that's an interesting word I don't use very often. I always thought it just meant garbage but Nasser says in "a call to die" that it's actually a much stronger word than that. Think of it in terms of your backyard, if you own a dog - or at the park or along the walking trail. There are some places you avoid stepping - at all costs - but sometimes you just aren't paying close enough attention. That's rubbish.

Any of you Greek students out there (I know there's at least one!) care to look that up and confirm it? It's found in Philippians 3:8..."Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ." Or better yet, here it is in the Message: "Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him."

Warning! It gets personal from here on!

That got me thinking. About constipation. Isn't that what we do? Not consciously, mind you, who would do that? But really, by holding onto the things of this world, the things that make us think we are all that and more, the pride in our accomplishments, the pride in our heritage, the pride in our church or denomination, the pride in who we've touched today, the pride in our lesson for the Bible class, the pride in our stories of how God loves us so much, I could go on and on...I'm sure you could too. And that doesn't even begin to cover the list of things of this world that we cling to. In holding onto all that are we not suffering from spiritual constipation? We need to let it go! Have ourselves a good ol' dump!! Ask God to give us a spiritual enema!! Yeah! That's it! That's what I'm talking about!

Now I'm not saying that having a spiritual heritage or church or stories are bad - I'm saying having pride in those things is bad - in fact it's rubbish - in my case it's my own dung which is far worse than any dog's! Ask Paul! It's rubbish because it keeps us from embracing Christ and being embraced by Him. I know when I have been constipated and I finally am released from that condition, I feel so much better. I actually feel free. I am unencumbered - released to live! I am no longer bogged down but I feel lighter and like the whole system is working better. But okay, that's enough of that.

The main thing here is getting rid of the rubbish and not leaving it laying around to step in again later. The guy who invented toilets was a genius! God has given us a way to do that too. It's called confession, repentance, prayer. Talk to Him. He would love to flush your heart clean.