What day is trash day?

I've got a pretty nice sort of office. When I moved in this summer, the church hooked me up with a dark-cherry desk, matching bookcases, matching low-profile horizontal filing cabinet, and there's these two cushy leather chairs the kids love. I may still work on sliding a small couch in the corner, but it's all pretty sweet. Gives that professional tone to the office, but still has flair (provided by the bobble head Jesus, giant inflatable OscarMeyer, and coconut monkey, among other odds and ends).

My trash can sits over in the corner, kind of behind the desk.

Now, I don't know if the cleaning staff hasn't thought about me having a trash can, if it's just been over-looked, or if they don't like me yet... I don't know, but they have yet to empty my trash can. That being said, I haven't emptied it yet, either. So far it's mostly scraps of paper, returned phone messages, Subway cups from lunch, stuff like that; nothing odor producing.

But the pile is growing.

The little trash can is full, and starting to spill over the edge ever-so-slightly. I've got another little trash bag next to the can holding more waste. It's slowly creeping out of the corner and invading the office.

I wonder how often we let trash build-up in our lives. Stuff that has no business being there, stuff that we just push to the edges and ignore for a while. I wonder what kind of junk we accumulate instead of just getting rid of it. I know there are things in my life that I need to let go of, trash that needs to be cleaned out. Some of this are areas I need to make changes, things I just need to man-up and take care of. Some of the junk are places I need to let God step in and change me.

My prayer is that God would come into the corners of my life and take out the trash, before it creeps out of the corners and takes over.

"This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." -1John1:5-9

Technorati tags: trash, sin, forgiveness