Who would have thought that
by picking up trash you could have a great revelation? The idea of spending
a whole Friday morning picking up trash along Tamiami Trail in the
Everglades was not something that really excited me, but it was something
that I had to do as part of a class. As I started walking along the path
assigned for us to clean, I rapidly noticed that cans and bottles of beer
were going to be the most common element in our garbage bags.
A Coke twelve-pack box was
the most noticeable object on the ground, so I walked to it to pick it up.
Unfortunately something disgusting awaited me; my nose did not help me
notice what was sitting underneath that colorful box. Stinking human feces
decorated with white toilet paper around it was what I found. I was
disgusted and I did not want to keep picking up trash fearing to once again
find something similar. Nevertheless, I kept doing it. As we walked down
the road, the image got printed in my mind, and it did not go away. Little
did I know what I was going to learn about those excrements.
I can imagine that around
one week ago, three fishermen arrived at this road. They were fishing,
drinking and eating for a couple of hours, when suddenly one of them needed
to go to the bathroom, but there was none around. Therefore, the one in
need had to walk away from the group in order to do what he needed to do in
a private place, where none could see him. Moreover, what he did had a
highly displeasing smell. Even though defecation is a natural action, it
carries a level of shame with it. Furthermore, this fisherman covered his
excrement with the intention that no one would ever find it. In spite of
everything, I am sure that he was not the first person to do something like
that, nor will he be the last one. In another words, I can say that the
Everglades is full of crap.
Just as defecating,
sinning is a natural act within our natural nature. Furthermore, many times,
when you defecate, you do not smell the bad odor, but others surely can. In
a very similar way our spiritual lives are full of hidden stinking areas
that we do not want anyone to find or even worse touch. There are many
areas deep inside of us that are so full of disgusting things that we have
secretly done throughout the years. Although these things have been
forgotten, they still remain inside of us, emanating a nasty smell. Yet,
just as I picked that Coke box up and revealed that which was hidden,
something similar happens in our lives when we decide to surrender ourselves
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Once you open your heart to Him and accept Him as
your Lord and Savior, then He will start a cleaning up process. Jesus will
put on his rubber gloves and take lots of plastic garbage bags to do a major
clean up of yourself. This could be a long and painful process, but it
certainly is worth the pain because in the process you will be able to
fulfill the purpose you were created for, which was to have a relationship
with your creator. Just as the Everglades can not clean itself, and it
needs us, higher beings to do so, we need God to do that cleaning job in us
because we can not do it by ourselves. The wise King Solomon wrote in the
book of Proverbs: AThere is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the
end thereof are the ways of death.@ The first step that you need to take to
be cleaned is to truly see yourself in the condition that you are. That is,
the condition of a person who sins every single day of his life, and that
will never make it to heaven on his own. Moreover, you have sinned, and the
price that you will pay for your sin is eternal death; nevertheless, Jesus
paid that unreachable price with his life on the cross, and now you are
able to come to God through Jesus Christ alone.
Something that I learned,
which impacted me, was that when Indians die, their families dispose of
their suitcases (in the Everglades!) with all their belongings with the
hope of giving them freedom in their afterlife. I know that different
cultures are brought up to believe different things, but once you have a
real encounter with the only living God, then you will know, that He is
real, and that He is the only one. He says that all the other gods are just
idols, made out of clay and mud. Moreover, reincarnation is a traditional
belief in many cultures, which seeks a way of trying to reach a level of
purification. Nonetheless Hebrews 9:27 states: AAnd as it is appointed unto
men once to die, but after this the Judgment.@ Many times people decide to
follow their own tradition even though they might go against God's will.
Just as we are the only
hope that the Everglades have to be saved, Jesus is the only way to heaven.
Now that you know this truth, what are you going to do with Jesus? Would
you let him clean your Everglades? Remember that He is the only one that
can. Save your Everglades, and do not let that beautiful creation burn
forever.
