We’ve all been there… waking up, early in the morning, to the familiar sound of the Garbage truck pulling up outside, as realization dawns that we’ve forgotten to take the trash out!

Fortunately, I was successful in getting my trash taken out to the curb last night before bed. But I sat here listening to the familiar bang and clang of the trucks mechanisms as it collected our cans, knocking them against its side to empty them, and then carrying on its way to the next stop.

I got to pondering the relationship society has developed with our weekly trash removal system. We collect and save up all our dirty, broken or unusable things to offer up on garbage day. We plan for their regularly scheduled visit with the anticipation of a fresh start… an empty can, ready to be re-filled! Nobody wants to miss garbage day, nor do we enjoy when they take a holiday… we would be stuck with twice the trash, or possibly have to take our garbage to the local dump all by ourselves. Don’t get mad at me for saying this, but I can’t help but notice how this seems eerily similar to how we treat our relationship with God sometimes… just saying.

That familiar bang and clang will either jolt you out of bed at a run, or bring you a sense of relief… depending on where your trash is sitting. For the times that we forget to set out our cans, there’s always that moment of hopeless defeat, where we realize that we’re just not going to make it in time. Sometimes we may stubbornly make a mad dash for the curb, spilling things as we go, to attempt a chase down of the garbage truck… we know the driver can see us running after their tail lights! Maybe they’ll stop, but most likely, they won’t! For the times we find ourselves still sitting in bed silently swearing, there will be a day of the blame game, side by side with several rounds of COA and Pass the Buck… someb0dy messed up and now all we have to show for things is a bag of smelly trash that needs a new home.

It’s not the end of the world or anything, as we are comforted that the truck will return the following week… we can just hold on to it a bit longer, even if it’s smelly. Garbage service, like our relationship with God, has become so regular, we’ve become conditioned to just know that they’ll be there on time, like clockwork! Something as small as the removal of our trash, can fully bring our society to its knees! If we simply left the trash where it sat indefinitely, hoping it would go away on its own, it would only continue to smell and attract rodents.

As far as ACTUAL garbage pick-up, I hope they pay a boatload of money to all those garbage picker uppers, because without them, many neighborhoods would simply light themselves on fire, trying to burn all their garbage. You may be asking yourself how I’ve come up with such an absurd idea… because I play video games that let me shoot things and light fires, so I know myself well enough to guess how I might resolve my trash issue, that’s why! If little ole me thinks up stuff like this, then I can be assured that I won’t be alone. Let’s just be grateful for all of our garbage picker uppers… I know that I am!

As far as my relationship with God goes, holding onto my trash instead of regularly giving it to my creator to be removed and destroyed, my life just really starts to stink!

Here, have a cookie…