Garbage Day

Garbage Day:  Pollution of the Mind through your Eyes and Ears. 

“Wickedness is in the midst thereof: deceit and guile depart not from her streets.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭55:11‬

With everyone talking about global warming and the green new deal and how to save the planet - does anyone think about the garbage that we allow into our minds through our eyes and ears?

I’m not talking about music here, although we could add that in. What in talking about is what you put in front of you. What you turn towards. What you listen to and what you look at is what I’m talking about. 

Do this for a moment, close your eyes and take your fingers and plug your ears. Now sit and think for five minutes or as close as you can get to five minutes. Set a timer if you have to. You will think about things that you have seen or heard. It’s almost impossible not to. The only way you won’t, is if you’ve never heard about or looked at something. 

And even then you might think of something that you haven’t. Like a million dollars. Some of us have never seen a million dollars, I haven’t. But we can picture it in our minds. Stacks and stacks of money. And now you’re probably thinking about it. It’s how the mind works. We stimulate the mind or senses and thoughts are introduced. It usually doesn’t take much. Play a word association game and you’ll see what I mean. 

We have polluted our minds by looking at and listening to, garbage. 

Some of us do a better job than others at keeping the garbage out. The garbage is feeding our sin nature. Some of you might not believe this, but allowing those things into your mind, feed your thought life or what you think about day to day. And because you think about it, it contributes to sin. 

And you say, but I haven’t done anything, I just thought about it. I can only speak for myself, but I’m willing to bet many others aren’t far off. We all have triggers. Things that will cause us to stumble or things that might trigger something else. 

Sin came before Adam and Eve and true, they are the reason we have our sin nature. But sin originally came from an angel, not a good angel, a bad angel. And we all know who that angel is. 

But here is my point, we have a sin nature, the ability to sin. And we all have triggers. Things that will ignite or set that sin off. Yet, we allow the garbage to be placed in front of us or to listen to it. 

I used tobacco products since I was roughly fifteen or sixteen years of age. As I grew older in my early twenties I used tobacco every single day, all day and night. First thing in the morning after I brushed my teeth and last thing at night before I went to bed. There were times when I would search and search for change to go buy tobacco because I ran out. My body craved tobacco. I was dependent on it.  And it was horrible for my body. I became dependent on a substance.  I idolized tobacco. I placed it above many other things. 

It can easily be drugs, alcohol, adultery, pornography, covetousness, jealousy, abuse, gossiping or pride. These things can affect our relationships, our parenting or our faith, just to name a few. 

These are the things that people struggle with day to day. And they are all a result of what we’ve allowed into our minds through our eyes and ears. Sure a lot has to do with how we were raised. But as adults we have the ability to make changes. We can start to clean out the garbage. And for me, I just allowed the garbage to stay in for a longer time than others. For some we will never know the garbage they are dealing with. And some have done an awesome job of keeping the garbage out. 

This devotion came about because I was researching a product the other day and I was watching YouTube videos. I came across a video of a guy making a product and moved on. But then I went back and watched it again. And something happened that I missed the first time. I almost went right by it. He didn’t use profanity, he wasn’t wearing a t-shirt with a rock band or alcohol on it and he didn’t have any images of scantily clad women around. I paid no attention to it originally. It was a clean, professional and a garbage-less video. It use to be the other way around for me. I was comfortable watching a video with someone making vulgar jokes or cursing every other word. But now it makes me uncomfortable.  And thankfully YouTube makes filters for such things. 

I went back and emailed the guy and told him how I appreciated his videos. He thanked me for noticing and said it was important to him. 

If we continue to look and listen to things we shouldn’t  we will start to imitate those things. Trust me, it will happen. We have all fallen victim to a trend or a fashion. Otherwise we would still be dressing like we did thirty years ago. Our minds are impressionable and this is why it is so important to keep the garbage out. 

We wouldn’t let rotting garbage sit in our house for days, or even weeks or even years. 

So why do we allow it in our minds. Start filtering out what you look at it. Don’t be that guy that drives down the road and stares at women. Put your eyes back on the road. Turn your head. You make the choices you make. Don’t train your mind to allow yourself to be that person.  It is human, sin nature to be sexual. You can sit and say it all day long that it isn’t.  But it is and men are worse then women at it. But women aren’t off the hook. 

If we allow ourselves to read books, watch movies and listen to things that glorify sexuality, abuse, profanity, drugs and alcohol - we are allowing the garbage into our minds. Glorify God by turning to Him instead. Turn to God in prayer. Worship Him by reading your Bible daily. 

Today, sit and think about changes you could make to take the garbage out of your life or your family’s life. 

It’s never too late to make some changes, especially if it’s for the better. 

And remember, every day is garbage day!

“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.”

‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭2:24-25‬

“But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭8:9‬

1 Peter 2 (entire chapter)