Every Sunday night I have to take out the trash. It's my job. Often times, unfortunately, I will lapse with this all too important domestic responsibility. Of course, this doesn't make my wife very happy.
I'm not proud to admit that it's been about 3 weeks since I've taken out the trash. Before you judge me prematurely, let me at least offer up a feeble explanation. First, I tried to take out the trash a couple weeks ago and the trash collector somehow missed my containers at the end of our driveway. I guess it's because we are new in the neighborhood. So, I had to haul everything back into my garage. I missed the next trash pick up day while away on a missions trip so now there is two weeks of trash that need to be discarded. Last week, I was fighting the flu and the trash pile continued to grow.
Here's the deal with trash - it stinks. The bigger the pile, the bigger the stink. The smell of rotting trash attracts rodents and other scavengers, as well. Now my wife is worried we are going to get mice in the garage and have to call an exterminator. If that wasn't bad enough, we had some friends over the other night and since we had all that snow last week, they had to come in the house through the garage and what did they see - a big pile of stinky trash. Now that's embarrassing.
I found there are a lot of similarities between physical trash and relational trash. We all have things that pile up in our relationships and if we don't take time to empty the emotional containers, stuff starts to pile up and life gets stinky. If you let stuff go too long, you might have to call in a professional to help deal with all the emotional and relational garbage. The next thing you know you find yourself in an embarrassing and seemlingly insurmountable situation.
So here's my advice, don't forget to take out the trash. Don't wait and say, "I'll do it later." Make time to keep your relationships fresh.
That's all for now. I gotta go take out the trash.
Dave
