Right around 7am, the garbage truck woke me up. The windows were open and the sounds of hydraulics stopping and starting filled my room. I could hear the mechanical arm lift the trash cans and dump the contents into the back of the truck. Then came the sound of slamming as the lids closed on the cans when they were violently returned to the earth. Then more revving and stopping at the next can, some 10 feet ahead.
I thought to myself:
“Why I haven’t I heard the garbage truck recently?”
Two clear answers came to mind.
- 1. Most Wednesdays, I wasn’t home at 7am. All throughout the school year on Wednesdays, I am at different Coaches Studies between 5am-8am, so I never heard the truck.
- 2. Those rare times that I was home, the windows were closed, and the sound was muffled.
How we deal with the sin in our lives is very similar.
When we have the ‘windows open’ and are witnessing the pain and destruction that sin is causing us (perhaps our health and mental state) and those around us, it is loud and uncomfortable. But when we bury it and muffle the consequences, or when we avoid it and just run away from the impact, we don’t recognize how destructive our actions are.
By opening the windows to the sin, we are living out 1 John 7-19.
7. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
You know what else I noticed? When the trash had been collected, and the truck left our street, there was peace and quiet. The same thing happens when we get rid of the trash in our lives. God’s peace fills us and healing can happen in our relationships. We need to be willing to face the truth, and open some windows.
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