Two weeks ago, a close friend of mine asked me to go dumpster diving. A few days before, she had misplaced some things valuable to her. She thought they might be in the trash in a neighborhood that was not the nicest or safest, so she asked me to come along.
When we walked up to the first dumpster, it had only a few bags in it, and the floor inside was at least dry. The smell wasn’t even that bad. I hopped in and started searching through the trash thinking, “You know, this really isn’t that bad!”
We didn’t find her stuff in that one, so we moved on to the next dumpster, just a short distance away. This time, as soon as I stuck my head in to look, the smell was so overwhelming, i had trouble breathing. There were several trash bags full of rancid food, and the whole floor was covered in this nasty unidentified liquid.
Still, the good friend in me climbed in and started searching through the putrid garbage. As i dug through the nastiness, God brought to my mind an awesome verse from Philippians.
“If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith ina Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.” -Philippians 3:4-9
As I was in that dumpster, God showed me that I should consider everything else like that nasty garbage, in comparison to knowing Him. That doesn’t just mean sin. That means everything. Compared to knowing Christ, my pastimes, schoolwork, and even friendships, should all be considered garbage. Even the amazing adventure and fun that I will have on the World Race Gap Year should be like garbage in comparison to the way I will grow to know Christ more throughout the trip.
These verses show just how valuable Jesus is. It’s not that any of the things I mentioned are bad or “garbage” on their own. Yet, in comparison to knowing Christ, that’s what they should seem like. A genuine relationship with Jesus Christ is so valuable. Knowing Him is the most important thing any of us can ever do, and growing to know Him more and more is the way I want to spend my whole life.
Friends, my first deadline for fundraising is May 3rd. I need to have $6,000 raised by then. Right now I am currently at $4,423. This means I need to raise almost $1,600 in less than 4 weeks! Although this seems difficult, I am not worried. I know that God can and will provide. I am asking each of you reading this to please pray and ask God if He would have you give to His work in this way, to help me get over this deadline. I simply ask that you give according to what He tells you to do. You can give by clicking the “Support Me!” link on the left side of this page! Thank you all so much.
By the way, for all you literature-savvy people, yes, I did steal the title of this blog, “On Dumpster Diving.” Credit goes to Lars Eighner and his very interesting essay.
Also by the way, for those of you wondering, we never did end up finding my friends things, despite lots of searching.
