Good morning and happy ice cube appreciation day. The temperature is cold enough to turn people into popsicles. Yikes. Makes me start humming the tune to Kokomo. Don’t judge me, it’s a catchy song. Besides, if the pretty mama mentioned is your wife and the drinks in your hand are non-alcoholic, then it surely could be sung by Baptists everywhere. On second thought, some of us should stick to humming. Anyway, I hope that you had a good week. Btw, as a public service announcement, tomorrow is Valentine’s day. Don’t forget to let you loved ones know you care by getting them candy that tastes like chalk, chocolate to ruin their diet, and an overpriced card where you rely upon someone else to say nice things to them.
Earlier this week, we got a postcard from our trash company. (although I think they like the terminology of waste management professionals). They had some exciting news for us. It was so good it was almost hard to believe. Out of the goodness of their hearts, and on a quest to save the planet, they are changing things regarding the service in our area. First of all, they are going to replace our recycling containers with ones made with a lot more recycled materials. Wow, that is so cool. It is a good thing to make more products like that. Really, there is too much waste in the world and we can do a better job. However, it made me wonder what they will do with all of the containers they were picking up. Do they throw them in the landfill? Do they run them throw the recycling process? Do they ship them to poor countries around the world, which happens more than we want to admit. The second thing they wanted to share with us is that the new containers will be much larger than the old ones. Wait, what? Isn’t the idea to discourage more stuff? Maybe that is to get you to recycle more if you were running out of capacity in the old rolling containers. Which, for our family of three, didn’t happen. I can’t remember the exact percentage, but if the new one has 20% more recycled material and yet is 40% larger, does that mean it used more new product to make it? Thirdly, these kind-hearted folks recognized that there is too much traffic in our neighborhoods. Of course, larger trucks cause more damage to the infrastructure (which is true). Therefore, since we will now possess bins much larger than our previous ones (at no cost to us), then it makes sense they wouldn’t need to come by and congest our neighborhoods with their asphalt destroying monster trucks (which now run on natural gas). So, beginning with the receipt of our new, larger, higher content of post-consumer recycled materials, rolling containers (that we didn’t request nor have room for in our garages), they will now be coming every other week. What a win-win for all of us. We can now store some of our trash for 2 weeks in our mega containers. Perhaps, in the summer time, there will be a sweet odor to remind us that we are doing our part to save the planet. It is almost as if our benevolent waste management gurus have given each of us the ability to be superheroes. One thing that I did notice on the well-designed, glossy postcard (which might not be recyclable) that espoused all of the benefits to this new program on our behalf, was any mention that the company would be saving costs by running routes only every other week. Is it possible that the trucks which used to service a given area will now have the capacity to do others areas as well? I wonder if cost containment or savings had any factor in this wonderful new program they are starting for our benefit? A long time ago, Michelle and I moved into a neighborhood that had trash service twice a week. I will readily admit that was excessive. Therefore, it really didn’t bother me when we finally got a notice that they were reducing the service to once per week like all of the other neighborhoods in the area. However, what really got people upset was that along with cutting the service in half, they were going to raise our rates. What? Somehow they seemed surprise when people throughout the neighborhood cancelled their service. Seriously, companies forget that most of us passed math class and have a bit of common sense.
This seems like a weird segue, but this is what I thought about over the course of the week. Sometimes, if we are not careful, we can fall into the trap of trying to sell the benefits of Jesus without explaining the cost, or the expectations. Yes, I know that salvation is a free gift and we can’t do anything to deserve it. It is through faith in Jesus alone. But, if we are not careful, we can accidently or intentionally tell only part of the story. Most people, when made aware of a place called hell, realize they don’t want to go there. If we instruct them to pray a certain prayer and they won’t go to hell, a lot will agree to do so. Many without hearing about the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Many without understanding Who Jesus is and why He came to die on the cross. What’s more, we sometimes fail to share that when we acknowledge Jesus as Savior and Lord, that He has some high expectations for us. At what point do we need to tell them that Jesus taught that His disciples are to take up the cross and follow Him? When is it a good time to share that we are to be willing to give up everything for Him? Strangely, there are people that have gone to church for a long time and yet still react when they are told of the expectations of those that follow Jesus.
57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
59 He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”
62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
(Luke 9:57-62)
Something to think about.
Larry
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