For a few days out of the week my team and I were asked to help clean up trash with our Pastor. He took us to a school and we started there and then went down the road about half a mile picking up trash along the way. After breaking for lunch, we went back to the school and picked up trash on the road going the other way. We did this again Wednesday and Thursday. While picking up trash is not my ideal job, it was cool to see the immediate impact we had on the environment, but more than that, it meant a lot to the people who lived in those areas.
We didn't go back out to any of the locations we cleaned up again until the following Monday. We were driving past a spot we cleaned up and you wont even guess what was covering the ground… More trash.
I'm not going to lie, it was so discouraging seeing so much trash in the same place we had spent an entire day cleaning up. This discouragement didn't last long though. Not even 5 seconds after I started thinking about how much that sucked, God said to me, "I do this all the time in your life."
Whoa. Instant attitude change.
God picks up the messy pieces of my life all the time. I mess up every day and sin all the time, and he never gets discouraged because of my mistakes and he never gives up on me. He continues to pick up the crap and mess of my life.
I could clean up the streets of Palacagüina, Nicaragua every day. But if the habits of the local people don't change then there will always be trash.
When an area of my life gets cleaned up, there will be a need to fill the cleaned area back up with something. If I don't replace bad habits of sin with God, then nothing will change. There will always be trash.
PS: I need $2,900 by 4/1/13 to make the next deadline. Please pray for me and the others on my team and squad who haven't made it yet. And if you can help financially you can donate on the left side of my blog under my photo by clicking the "Support Me" button.
Much Love!
Malerie
