JUNK

Yesterday was Saturday, and I was absolutely lazy!  Thursday and Friday nights football games in Rusk wore me slap out!  I recouped yesterday and decided today that I had to accomplish something.  I deemed the afternoon as “Mission:  Clean up the Suburban.”  

I attacked the bugs by hand on the front and got it sparking clean… that is until tomorrow night when it gets covered again.  

The next stage of our mission was to clean out the console.  I have often appreciated the deep and roomy consoles that Chevy designed in the 2012 Suburban. When I first bought my car years ago, I thought it was great to have that much room, and that my console would be the most organized and tidy console ever.  

Well, four years and over a hundred thousand miles later, let me tell you that our console was anything but organized and tidy.

Layer by layer, I pulled out a variety of items and took a trip down memory lane with each of them.  I worked with a strategy, using a trash bag for junk that needed to be immediately discarded and a plastic tote for things that possible could be salvaged.  

I transported the reclaimed items into the house.  I found tickets.   There were tickets from The State Fair of Texas, Sandy Lake Park, and from local law enforcement.  (No explanation needed)  I found numerous pens, pencil, post-it notes, and paper clips.  I feel like I should return 90% of our school supplies to Office Depot and beg for a refund based on the number of office supplies I found in my car.  Needless to say, we did not need to have pens or pencils on our list or to purchase a single writing utensil!  The number in my car was ridiculous!  

My console also inconspicuously served as a treasure chest.  It was full of coins.  Some of the coins were actual currency that could be exchanged for goods.  I like those!  Others were from car washes for free vacuums and from the good old days at Chuck E Cheese.   I guess we saved tokens for the next time and sadly, the next time did not come.  We outgrew Chuck E Cheese.  I don’t know if I should cry or cheer.  

I had C.D.s, an assortment of napkins, phone chords, and some old snapshots that were priceless; however, I also had some junk that was not worth keeping.  I brought it in the house for a second look, but deemed several items worthless.  

Working through my console reminded me of how I should work through my life.  

Some stuff in my car needed to immediately be thrown in the trash, just like some of the stuff in my life!  Sin needs to go.  Sin that we know is sin, and that is intentional sin, will only lead to personal destruction!  Why keep it?

A few items made the first garbage cut, but found their way into the trash later after more examination.  Likewise, some areas in life are gray.  They may not be necessarily sinful, but they may not be best for us.  God wants what is best for us!  He wants for us to sort through our choices, attitudes, and actions closely and weed some of them out.  

The good news is that some of what I recovered from my car was good!  Similarly, when we examine our lives, we will find some good stuff.  Thank the LORD for the good and hold onto it tight.  

1 John 1:8-10 says “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us.”