Deep Theological Thoughts While Washing Out a Garbage Can

The other day, my wife told me our garbage can stunk. I told her the natural consequence of throwing stinking garbage into a can would eventually lead to the can itself stinking. She wasn’t impressed with my logic and insisted I do something about the stinking garbage can. 

So, I took the garbage can out into our back yard, grabbed the garden hose and began spraying the garbage can with water to rinse it out. The first waves of water that ran out of the can were filthy – gray and nasty, floating out bits of paper and plastic that had become stuck to the sides of the garbage can. 

That’s when I noticed what should have been obvious from the beginning – the more water I sprayed into the can, the cleaner the garbage can became. Not only that, but the water running out of the can was cleaner as well. I’m not sure I would have drunk any of the water, but at least, nothing nasty was floating in it. 

Of course, being a preacher, everything in life is in danger of becoming a sermon illustration and cleaning out a garbage can is no exception. As the debris flowed out of the dirty can, I noticed some obvious things. First, I had to be sure to hold the can at a particular angle so the dirty water didn’t splash back on the can and make it dirty again. Second, I had to make sure I didn’t sit the can down in the muddy puddle gathering under the can itself. 

But more than anything, I had to keep spraying the can with clean water. The more I washed down the can with clean water, the cleaner the can became. How could I tell? Because the water running out of the can was cleaner. 

Of course, that made me think – stay with me – about the stuff that was flowing out of my own life. Was it clean? Or was it gray and nasty? Of course, the obvious fact is what flows out of us is only what is in us. 

And that’s the mistake most of us make as we try to follow Christ. We spend all of our time trying to get the nasty stuff out and put off the filling of our lives with Christ until our lives are clean enough for Jesus. There are two problems with this way of thinking. First, our lives will never be clean enough for Jesus. There’s always going to be some speck of dust, some clod of dirt, some left over something too small or too big for us to get out in our own power. 

Second, filling our lives with Christ is how we get the nasty stuff out. We don’t waste a lot of time trying to deal with every sin of anger, greed, lust or laziness before we fill our lives with Jesus. We start filling our lives with Jesus and He flushes out everything in our lives that is not Him. Jesus, through His Spirit, pours Himself into us and because you can’t hold the ocean in a thimble, His fullness runs out of lives into the lives of those around us. These are the springs Jesus said would flow from within us. These springs, Jesus promised, would never run dry. 

When I was growing up, we would show up at church every Sunday and hear about all of the sins we shouldn’t be doing. We would come back to church the next week and thank God we hadn’t done anything. Christianity has to be more than that. It has to be more than sin avoidance. 

It is. Being a Christian is about filling our lives with Christ through the study of His word, fellowship with His people and joining Him in His redemptive work. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, tells the church to “think on these things.” 

“ Finally, brethren,” he writes, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things” (Php 4:8).

My friends in AA tell me they have to protect their sobriety at all costs. Our relationship with Christ has to be guarded at all costs. If something helps us come closer to Christ, we keep it. If it doesn’t, we get rid of it. It’s that simple. 

Remember, our lives are a lot like that empty garbage can. The water only runs pure when the can is overflowing with clean water. We’re the same way. Our lives only run pure with Christ when our lives are overflowing with His grace and goodness. This week, let’s add a lot more Jesus to our lives. Let’s add so much Jesus to our lives there isn’t room for anything else. 

This essay was first posted in Scot McKnight’s newsletter.