Last week I had the most unusual experience. I was just starting work at our church, something I do each and every week. One of my first jobs each Thursday is to empty all the trashcans in the lobby and children's wing. And one of the trashcans on my list is in the copy room, right next to the copy machine.
Usually this job is pretty easy. Most of the time I can just dump the trash into my big huge black trash bag, instead of actually having to change the bag in the trashcan. Sometimes, however, there is so much trash, or it is so dirty, I must actually change the bag.
And that's what happened this last week. I didn't know what it was, but there was some black powdery stuff all over the trashcan, and in the trash bag. Well, I decided everything was so full and messy I needed to change the bag. So I dumped the whole bag into my big trash bag, and then inserted a new white trash bag into the copy room trashcan. Problem solved, right? Well.......
Happy to be done with the copy room ordeal (which by the way, wasn't THAT bad), I continued emptying trash cans, this time in the bathrooms. As I go on doing my job, I find an unusual phenomenon happening: I'm getting black all over my hands! So I go and promptly wash my hands.
But as I continue my job, I find more black on my hands! Whatever could that be from? I thought. I'm just hauling my trash bag around! And then I realized: Ahhhh! Whatever that black stuff was from the copy room trash must've gotten on the trash bag, and when I touch the trash bag it transmits the black powdery stuff onto my hands.
So I went and washed my hands with cold water again. Thankfully I was done using that particular black trash bag, so I had no more problems. Later I found out that the black powdery stuff I had run into was toner, a powder used in the copy machine. I guess when someone had refilled the machine they hadn't done too good of a job, or else a lot of it got on the trash can and bag. In hindsight I am really happy I washed my hands, as I have found out that toner can have quite the adverse effects on your health.
I've been thinking about my toner experience of late. It's very interesting on how similar my toner experience is to our spiritual experience. The toner is kind of like sin. When we come in contact with sin (and all of us do), it messes us up all over. There's many, many different kinds of sin. Each one of us knows the specific ones we deal with individually. It's an awesome first step when we come to Jesus and ask him to cleanse us, to "wash our hands", but that's not enough. No, while cleansing is a crucial first step, we must stay away from our sin and sin no more.
John 8:11:
"Go now and leave your life of sin." ~Jesus
Philippians 4:13:
"I can do everything through him who gives me strength."
We certainly can't do this by ourselves. We can't, period. As sinful creatures we want to do what is forbidden. Then what do we do, if we are to sin no more? We need to ask Jesus for his power, and for Him to help us stay away from the various personal sins we may have. We need to ask Him to take away the desire to do our favored, pet sins and give us the want, willingness, and power to do what He wants us to do.
And the beautiful truth of it all is that Jesus does, he wants to help us out of our situation! Will you ask for His help today?
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