Trash Dumpster Paradox - Part 1

ALERT!!!! Just last week, someone sabotaged the trash dumpster in the back of our church parking lot!!!! Someone came in the night and dumped countless bags of trash in a dumpster that was not theirs to use!! As I drove into the parking lot the next morning, I noticed trash piled up to the heavens from our dumpster – some even overflowing into the parking lot!! It looked like the Tower Of Babel made of black trash bags!!!

Someone would have to pay!!!!!

Fast-forward one week. Just two days ago, someone in the office looked out a window and said, “Hey! There’s someone at the dumpster.” I looked out my window and saw the “culprit” standing there at the dumpster and watched as he appeared to be adding more trash. Immediately, I flew out of my office and downstairs to catch the “criminal.” When I got into the parking lot, he began to drive off. But no! You can’t get away from me!!

So I ran and yelled . . . “Hey!!!! Stop!!!!” Eventually the man stopped his beaten down pickup truck. After he stopped, I instantly opened the passenger door to ask the man if he had been putting trash in “our” trash dumpster. After I got the question out of my mouth, I noticed the man’s face. It was the face of an older man that was filled with incredible pain. His face told me his answer before a word came from his lips. His face said, “Help!”

Then his voice said, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t dumping trash. I was just digging to find some aluminum cans so I could sell them.”

Like a dagger in my soul, I’ve been crushed because I’ve traded the compassion of Jesus for a vain attempt to “save the world of trash dumpsters.” The face of the needy man was the face of Christ. Jesus said, “Whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matt. 25:40).

Draw your own conclusions and come back over the weekend for Part 2 of this story.