Garbage In, Garbage Out
Life on the Pasture
Ellen and I went on an errand late this afternoon and came home to a kitchen floor covered with garbage. We knew immediately what had happened. Someone forgot to secure the cupboard door under the sink and our dog Jingles, who smelled a discarded meat wrapper, took the opportunity to get at the garbage can and scrounge through it for whatever tasted good. It would have been nice to be able to punish Jingles with a proper consequence and have her clean up the mess she caused, but as smart as she may be, that wasn't going to happen. And so Ellen and I cleaned up the kitchen floor, as well as the added mess on the living room carpet, and went on with life (which at that moment meant doing the dishes). Later on, Ellen went into the living room and called my attention to what became "cleaning up after the dog round 2." As the phrase goes, "Garbage in, garbage out." Again, as much as I would have loved to force the dog to clean up her own mess, it wasn't going to happen. It was up to me. Needless to say, I wasn't particularly happy.
I was once told a story that supposedly happened to Martin Luther. One day he was visiting with a young couple and holding their baby. The infant "had an explosion," so to speak. (Keep in mind, there were no super-absorbent diapers back in the 16th century.) The couple was mortified, but Luther reassured them that it was no big deal and used it as a teachable moment: "Isn't that just how we treat our heavenly Father. He holds us in His arms of love and we turn around and do this to Him." Now whether or not that is a true story, I don't know. But it is a great analogy about our Lord.
But what would be interesting is if the story would go on with Luther gladly cleaning up the baby's mess instead of handing the child back to his parents to do the work. When it comes down to it, that's what's so amazing about our Lord's love for us. As Paul puts it, "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8, NIV) Jesus came to clean up our mess which we could not do for ourselves, and did so willingly.
I don't know about you, but I do know about me. Most of my messes are not that public, but they are there nevertheless. What is more, I often find myself, like my dog Jingles, unable to resist the garbage. No matter how I try to resist certain temptations, I give in. And as with my dog, so with me: garbage in, garbage out. "So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:21–25, NIV)
– Pastor Schmidt