On Saturday before the big snow, Tony, the Worst-Best, and I, went to pick up trash along Poor House. It had been bothering me for a while. When I walk the Worst-Best along the perimeter of the front field, I’m a little bewildered at the amount of trash that’s laying in the ravine and that’s blown out into the field. Every time I head out I say I’m going to take a bag and clean up that trash and every time we’re down the road before I remember.
It’s interesting to me what collects along the side of the road. How does it get here? Carpet and upholstery samples (someone out our way is remodeling), insulation, shingles, tons of ba da ba ba ba lids and straws (I’m leaning slightly toward California on the ban), plastic bags, cardboard boxes, pieces of tire, metal strips, foam mailers, umpteen glass bottles and cans (beer to bai – people are really staying hydrated), a piece of a shoe, and countless other sundry trash. It took about 45 minutes to fill the wagon to overflowing. We stopped because we were full not because we ran out of trash.
Some trash was clearly visible, it was laying right on top of the ground in plain view. Other pieces of trash you could barely see but when you started to pull on it you hit the mother lode, thus the wagon. And still other pieces of trash you didn’t know were there at all until you stepped on them because they were not out in the open to see, they were hidden beneath the grass, or leaves, or beneath field debris. As I’m looking for trash and picking it up, it dawned on me that that’s something I should be doing on a daily basis in my heart. Searching for the trash. You know, clean out the debris. Ouch — I know.
I can stand in the middle of Poor House and look out into the fields and on the surface, it can look stunningly beautiful. But, if the wind’s a blowing, I might see something fly by. If I look just beyond the surface, if I walk the land, if I move the grass and leaves, there’s a ton of trash. Trash needs to be tossed whether it’s on our land or in our hearts.
Wash yourselves and be clean!
Let me no longer see your evil deeds.
Give up your wicked ways.
Learn to do good.
Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
Defend the orphan.
Fight for the rights of widows.
Isaiah 1:16-17
The Lord plainly tells us to wash ourselves and be clean. What does that mean? It means to get rid of the trash in our lives. Walk through the field and piece-by-piece pick it up. Repent and practice righteousness. How do we do that? Well, we can’t practice righteousness without first practicing repentance. We have to take care of the obvious first, the things we can see. You know, those plastic bags that fly around in plain sight that we sometimes have trouble grabbing. Is there something you have trouble grabbing? For me, it’s my words. Once they come out, I have a super hard time chasing them down. It’s one of my wicked ways and I don’t say that flippantly. It’s true. My words hurt.
Second, we start to handle the trash caught up in the underbrush. You know, the stuff you can see but others may not. Then we take care of the stuff that thee nor we can see, the trash that lays beneath the surface, that which we cover up so we don’t have to pick it up. Got any of that? Me too.
Here’s the thing, if we collect and confess our trash, if we repent, if we come before Jesus and seek His forgiveness, we don’t have to lug around the wagon. What does He say?
Come now, let us argue this out,
No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can remove it.
I can make you as clean as freshly fallen snow.
Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you as white as wool.
If you will only obey me and let me help you…
Isaiah 6:18-19
The Gospel of Isaiah — the salvation of Jehovah! The Good News in the Old Testament! Yes! Isn’t that beautiful? God says come. God says let’s talk about this, let’s reason this out together. He says I will cleanse you from your sin. He says bring me your trash, – above and below the surface – and He will cleanse it. No matter how deep the stains of our sins, He can remove them. The deepest, darkest, most permanent stains can be removed by Jesus. He not only removes the stains, blots them out as if they didn’t ever occur, erases them from His memory, He changes the stain to a brilliant, sparkling, pure white. We can pick up the trash (confess our sins), we can scrub the stains left behind by that trash, but a stain is a stain. Only God can make our hearts completely clean. Fresh. New. Only God can cleanse us.
The Lord says come, no matter what trash is gathered in your wagon, or if your wagon is filled to overflowing. He says if you will only obey me and let me help you, He will provide what we need. I don’t think He could make it any more clear to us, could He? That’s the Good News! God said, if you obey me, I can help you with your wagon.
PERSIST
Psalm 51
Isaiah 1
PURSUE
We pray, Lord Jesus, that you create in us today clean hearts. Renew a right spirit within us. Restore our joy. Amen.