Digging in the Dumpster

I remember the first time I saw a homeless person. As a college freshman, I was required to participate in some sort of outreach, and ended up spending most Saturdays in inner city Chicago, encouraging families to visit our church on Sundays via our bus fleet. It was not uncommon to see people on street corners, carefully guarding the entire sum of their worldly goods contained in a few shopping bags or beat up grocery cart while keeping an eye out for the next available treasure. Often we'd see them in the alley, routing through someone's trash or a dumpster behind McDonalds's, in search of anything they could salvage for themselves.

I can't imagine anyone sinking so low that they need to look through trash to maintain their very existence. The smell alone would be enough to turn me away. But you know, that's what I find myself doing from time to time. Digging in the dumpster. Sometimes I find myself reaching into my past, digging up old or painful memories and rehashing them. Other times, I catch myself retrieving the burdens I've laid at Jesus' feet, choosing to shoulder them again, in spite of the heaviness of the load. In my eyes, my actions make sense. I seek comfort in my burdens and solace in my problems. However, God has redeemed me and made me victorious through His Son. I want to feast at His table of grace rather than choose to wallow in the garbage of the past.

Psalm 113: 5-8 Who can be compared with the LORD our God, who is enthroned on high? Far below him are the heavens and the earth. He stoops to look, and he lifts the poor from the dirt and the needy from the garbage dump. He sets them among princes, even the princes of his own people!