Trash Diggers
I had been house-sitting and dog-sitting for my parents while they were out of town. Wednesday night, their dog Mabel was in the back yard and she got into the trash bag that I had left out there. For the next three days, Mabel was unable to keep any nutrients down or within her little body. On Saturday night, after two trips to the vet, and one trip to the animal hospital, Mabel died. I am amazed by the rapidity with which everything happened!
Amidst torrents of emotions and questions, God spoke to me. He showed me in her a parallel with the lives of so many people. In our own special way, we are all trash diggers. We may not physically eat trash out of a trash bag (I hope none of us do!), but we all have our own favorite trash. The kinds of things that we know full well will not result in any long-term benefit to us. The kinds of things that, upon consuming them, we quickly come to realize that we have been eating trash! The kinds of things that our Master has clearly instructed us not to do.
“As a dog returns to his own vomit, So a fool repeats his own folly” (Proverbs 26:11). These words, written by Solomon thousands of years ago became painfully clear to me this weekend. Why do we do these things? We know they are wrong, and yet we are deceived into thinking that they will be enjoyable. Fortunately for us, we have had our minds renewed (cf. Romans 12:2), we are new creations (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17), and we no longer want to do those things that cause pain to ourselves and others.
So often, when we strive on our own power to accomplish good things, we find the words of Isaiah ringing true, that “all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:6). So how do we avoid digging in trash, which will ultimately lead to death? As the angel of the LORD told Zechariah, so is it today. “‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). When we trust in the Lord for the strength and wisdom to withstand temptations, James tells us that when we ask God for wisdom, He will give it to us liberally (cf. James 1:5)! All we have to do is ask, as Solomon did in 1 Kings 3.
But I find myself relying on my own goodness, my own strength, and even my own righteousness. I know these very things to be useless on their own, but my flesh is constantly warring with my spirit for control over my body. “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:25).
This world is stained and marred by the sin that so pervades our daily existence. Because of sin, there is pain, sorrow, and death in our world (cf. Romans 5:12). As believers, we can look for and hasten the day of the coming of our beloved Lord Jesus. On that day, “every knee shall bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10,11). What an awesome time that will be for us. What a dreadful time that will be for those who, like us, are trash diggers, but unlike us, are under the command of a master who cannot save them. Their names are not written in the Book of Life, and they will therefore be “cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15).
All of us are trash diggers at heart. We are all trash diggers in practice at one time or another – it’s part of being human. But we have been given the means by which to overcome this dreadful state of existence, if only we will remain in fellowship with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I pray that we all will draw nearer and nearer to Him, as the day is now far spent, and His coming is presently at hand. Keep this in mind as you go about your day-to-day routines this month, won’t you?
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