What a Waste

Trash dumps amaze me.  They break my heart.  When I worked at the University of Montevallo, I had to make frequent trips to the dump for the carpentry shop.  On one occasion, I noticed hundreds of old black and white photographs of a time long forgotten.  You could tell this from the clothes, hairstyles, buildings, and cars it was the 1930’s.  I wondered why these pictures were discarded.  Who were these people?  Were the pictures stolen?  It was such a waste of someone’s time, talent, and money.  It makes me think how our world is a trash dump of people.

Garbologists say America is a wasteful nation.  Garbology is the study of garbage.  It is a great source of information about a society.  What a society discards reveals who they are.  It shows how they live and how they are living.  The conclusion is Americans are spendthrifts. 

Take a trip to the dump and look at what you find.  Garbage is an expensive problem.  People tend to waste more in bad times than in good times according to garbologists. 

What about our lives?  How many people do you know who live wasted lives?  Every day, more and more people realize that they have done little in life.  Others exist in a living hell, suffer torments, and die to suffer for an eternity.

Jesus used a garbage dump when describing hell.  In the Greek, the word for hell is Gehenna.  It was the place of polluted filth, dead carcasses of animals, dead bodies of criminals, and constant fires.  The fire destroyed the smell and the refuse.  The fire always burned creating a never-ending process.  Gehenna was the place where Moloch made human sacrifices.  Gehenna was a picture of hell and its ugliness.  Jesus told His disciples to fear God’s judgment in hell, which is the eternal Gehenna.

The judgment of God extends beyond death.  Believers find confidence in God while sinners fine confinement in the eternal Gehenna. 

Gehenna is a figurative picture of the wastefulness of a precious life.  It is tragic ending for neglecting the love of God.  People can discard many things, but a wasted life is paramount.  Hell is a monument to those who do not love God.  We need to get a burden for lost people.

One morning after sleeping a couple of hours off a midnight shift, Sharon woke me.  I thought I was dreaming.  In this dream, she was shaking me to tell me our neighbor’s house was on fire.  The neighbor’s house was on fire and it was not a dream.  Fortunately, no one was home.  About the time I got to the house, another neighbor was there with a small kitchen fire extinguisher.  As he reached for the door, I cautioned him.  I felt the door and it was extremely hot.  I knew from safety training at work this was a bad sign.  I said if you open the door, the flames would engulf us.  I had not finished the sentence when windows on the front of the house exploded and immediately the house went down in flames.  In less than thirty minutes, the house was a pile of ashes that smoldered for a couple of days.

The family lost some valuable substance, but the most precious substance saved untouched by the fire was their lives.  I pray that our churches learn the value of recycling lives.  The change of the disciples after Resurrection Sunday reminds us of the transforming power of God. Many people discarded by the world find hope and encouragement in God and His people.  Look around at the waste of talent, time, and money.  Let us live transformed lives.

And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.  But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him (Luke 12:4-5).