Out with the trash

Today in Waynoka is trash day. The trash collector comes going house to house, business to business with his with his loud truck with a very large claw that grabs the blue containers and lifts it up dumping the contents into his huge compactor. Every Thursday this happens. I am sure it happens at your house too. According to the Annenberg Foundation, the average American generates four pounds of solid trash per day, for a grand total of 1,460 pounds per year. Americans are the number one global trash offenders. Every day, we dispose of approximately 200 million tons of the stuff. Less than one-quarter of it is recycled, leaving the rest for land fills and incinerators.

The amount is staggering and could be the topic of another blog, but my thought today was, what do we consider worthy of garbage. How do we place a value on something calling it worthy of our disposal?

I hear the garbage truck in the distance and it is going about its chores for us, a service, though we pay for it with our taxes or monthly fees and yet I am overwhelmed by the staggering trash of humanity we throw away by not wanting it or valuing it or even bothering to think about it.
Dysfunctional troubled kids, addicts and junkies, the homeless and destitute, the aged and the infirmed, the disabled? The people around us...how long do we value them and when do they stop having worth in our eyes so that we mentally throw them out like the trash we throw away everyday?

When do we give up on them? How long can we sustain a value system of love for them, some very unlovable and some who sometimes seem like they do not want to be loved at all?

1 John 3:17, 18 - But if anyone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need and refuses to help--how can God's love be in that person? Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions.
It does not say give money or things, The Bible is calling us to 'action'

What we might not hold dear or place any value on God places the highest value:
John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

We should celebrate the value God places on us and on all humanity:
1 John 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God

The Touch of the Masters Hand

Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer thought it scarcely worth his while to waste much time on the old violin,but held it up with a smile; "What am I bidden, good folks," he cried,"Who'll start the bidding for me?" "A dollar, a dollar"; then two!" "Only two? Two dollars, and who'll make it three? Three dollars, once; three dollars twice; going for three.."

But no, from the room, far back, a gray-haired man came forward and picked up the bow; Then, wiping the dust from the old violin, and tightening the loose strings, he played a melody pure and sweet as caroling angel sings.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer, with a voice that was quiet and low,said; "What am I bid for the old violin?" And he held it up with the bow.A thousand dollars, and who'll make it two? Two thousand! And who'll make it three? Three thousand, once, three thousand, twice, and going and gone," said he.

The people cheered, but some of them cried, "We do not quite understand what changed its worth." Swift came the reply: "The touch of a master's hand."And many a man with life out of tune, and battered and scarred with sin, Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin, A"mess of pottage," a glass of wine; a game - and he travels on. "He is going" once, and "going twice, He's going and almost gone." But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd never can quite understand the worth of a soul and the change that's wrought by the touch of the Master's hand.

Myra 'Brooks' Welch