WASTE   MANAGEMENT                                Submitted by:  Merilee Ottoson

Waste Management----definition:  the precise name for managing trash in order to avoid its adverse effect over human health.

How are you doing with your own “waste management”? You know….the flow of garbage that comes into your life on a daily basis. It is convenient to blame the garbage in our lives on social media…..TV, movies, etc. We are well aware of the effects of “that stuff”. What role do we play in entertaining our own “trash”?

Funny as it is….we seem to like to bring garbage into our lives. We may shake our heads and point fingers, but the sad situation actually has its roots in what we “allow”. We “allow” ourselves to re-visit issues in our lives that involve someone who has hurt us. We like to go over and over things that we say we have forgiven. We feel better about ourselves by rehearsing the wrong someone has done to us…..but it is GARBAGE. The bad attitudes we spew to others are GARBAGE…. The pride that makes us feel superior…..GARBAGE. We are often certain that we know much more and do things much better than others….more GARBAGE. And then there’s our sin that we say we hate………but take no steps to be “rid of”.  The label is always the same…GARBAGE. If given a choice, would you go out to your garbage can right now and bring that stuff back into your home???

Satan would love to do our “waste management” for us. He has a plan to help us keep the garbage in our lives because bacteria and vermin feed on garbage.  Anyone who handles garbage is at risk for adverse health effects. We once visited a seven story high garbage dump in the Philippines where 25,000 people lived.  Those dear people made their homes there and scavenged through the garbage daily. Ninety per cent of them had tuberculosis. A preventable disease……if only they could have moved away from the garbage dump.

We, however, have a choice…..to live or not live with garbage.

“Finally….whatever is true…honorable…right…pure…lovely...of good repute…any excellence…anything worthy of praise…let your mind dwell on these things...” (Phil. 4:8)