George Dalton's Column

The Trash Dumpster
By George Dalton

God can use the strangest things to teach us a valuable lesson if we are listening to his voice.

Let me take a moment and tell you a true story… Our office is in an industrial complex… people are forever throwing garbage on the ground near the dumpster, not in it, on the ground near it… This habit some people have really irritates me… recently I went to throw some trash into the dumpster and two men were out there on their hands and knees picking up all of the litter and putting it into trash bags which they then were placing into the dumpster……I didn’t recognize either one of these men but they were doing a very good job…

So indignantly I said, “doesn’t that make you fighting mad when idiots throw their trash on the ground instead of putting it in the trash dumpster. People like you then have to come out here and clean up their mess.”

The nearest man turned to me and said,” We are glad to do this, because you see we just made a deal with that restaurant (pointing to the street) to clean up this ally in exchange for a hot meal.”

I just stood there with egg on my face… I was worrying about a little trash on the ground when these men were worrying about food … Have you ever wondered …why me lord. Why do I have a job, a nice car to drive and a nice house to live in? These two men were not lazy and unwilling to work; they were doing a good job. They looked clean and descent. Why am I so blessed and they not?
Maybe instead of asking “Why me” I should be like Jeremiah who wrote “From them shall proceed the voice of thanksgiving and the sound of those who make merry and I will multiply them and they not will be diminished."

I have to ask myself, how many times have I been like the nine Lepers in Luke chapter 17, ten were healed, but only one took time to say than you. Now I take every opportunity to thank God for the everyday things in my life, things I often took for granted. My wife my children, my job, the fact that I have two hands that can work, most of all I thank him for his love and for Jesus.

Then I thank God that he used a trash dumpster to teach me a valuable lesson.

Copyright © 2010 George Dalton.  All rights reserved.