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Sometimes I think everyone has a little Michael Jordan in them. Oh, we may not be big basketball fans or even watch a single March Madness NCAA tournament game but deep down we all want to sink that big jump shot. Or sitting in your chair shot. Or laying on the floor shot. Or not wanting to get out of bed and not really looking but toss it anyway shot.
I’m talking about that strange connection between us, a wadded up piece of trash and the trash can.
We want that satisfying sound of paper hitting the bottom of the can. No matter where are when we throw it we envision the perfect arc of the trash…the moment of adrenaline when we realize it looks perfectly aligned…then the joy when you hear the “thunk” and know that you, my friend, have hit a shot more clutch than the winning shot in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Hey, at least there you don’t have to go and pick it up and put it in again after you miss. However, if you do miss you feel anger or disgust…not really on any major level…but you still have that feeling that you should have made it. It’s a minor irritant but an irritant nonetheless.
We MUST get that trash in the trash can. That’s where it goes to be disposed of forever. It keeps your area clean and we all usually like a clean house or workspace. (We may not like cleaning up…but we like it clean…)
It’s with that in mind that I think of the passage in 1 John 1:9 (ESV) that says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” God is in the business of cleaning things up in your life. Rooting out the sin and tossing it away but we have to contribute a bit to that effort by standing up against sin ourselves. It’s like having five children in your house for the weekend. You can run around cleaning after them…mopping up spilled soda, cleaning some weird substance off the walls or throwing away parts of a dead frog one of the kids brought inside which might have contributed to that weird wall stain…but if the kids keep behaving like they have been behaving your cleaning is all for naught.
While there’s many parts of your Christian life where you want to “throw off the old self” but today I want to focus on your thought life. That is sometimes the hardest place to take a stand for Christ even though it’s inside your own skull where you also know that Jesus is Lord. However, you CAN win the battle for your mind if you allow the power of God to do it’s work without you running around and letting the dirty thoughts return to where it’s been cleansed.
Bad thoughts are going to enter your head. It’s impossible to live this life and not see things that might make you jealous or lustful or envious. If you’ve had to struggle with an addiction of someone kind you will have thoughts come out of nowhere that might trigger you back into that sinful addiction. Having those thoughts appear within your head is NOT A SIN. I know some Christians believe or try to have you believe that just the thought itself is a sin and it’s not…it’s a temptation. It becomes a sin when you linger on that thought and it moves from a temptation to lusting for a person or thing or action.
So here’s what I want you to do. I want you to picture in your mind a big, 24 karat solid gold trash can. On the trash can in big block letters are the words “God’s Holy Trash Can.” There’s a lid on it without a handle so you can’t take the lid off yourself. Then when you get an envious thought, a lustful thought…any kind of improper thought…I want to you to imagine you’re wrapping it up in a big piece of aluminum foil. Then once you have the ball good and tight turn and fling it toward God’s Holy Trash Can. Imagine the lid flying up in the air because God opened the can. Imagine the ball flying right into the can because you can’t miss it. Imagine a white light bursting from the can as the ball hits the bottom and then the lid snapping down on it tight.
Let God take that thought, cleanse you of it and keep it away permanently.
I know…it sounds very silly. Just try it a few times and you might find there’s room in your head for God’s Holy Trash Can.
