On the Way to the Garbage Can...

“No change in the weather, no change in me…” Thought Jialyn as she walked through her house. “I can’t eat the air, and can’t drink the sea, I have nowhere to go and nothing to do. I have dreams, but that’s all, high expectations, but no encouragement.” She spied an old garbage bag leaning against the wall.

 “It is like so many other things in life - the garbage bag, just sitting waiting for something to happen. Yet nothing ever will happen to a sedentary bag unless it sprouts legs and walks.” She picked up the bag and started to walk towards the front door, “Here I am, I have to be its legs for it, I have to motivate it, I have to take it where it belongs.” She opens the door to the pristine outside “I tell you, not even garbage has motivation anymore. It doesn’t strew itself as garbage should, nor does it seek to burst its seams and explode all over the lawn. No! It just sits against a wall – waiting. Waiting for what? Me! It sits and waits until I give it the opportunity to live out its life potential in a garbage can. What stupidity!” Jialyn was now halfway across the drive headed for the dumpster.

 “It is a curse! Not even my friends are exempt, they too lean against walls and wait for someone to motivate them. Yes! They as well need Mom and Dad to be their legs. Ugh! Alden, eighteen and no driver’s licence or money, stays at home and knits. Chloe, 17 and no job, no grades and so much drama she dropped out of school. Xanthe, 19 didn’t want to go to Collage so has taken Youtubing up as a profession with bottle-flipping on the side averages $17.00 a month in income. What will become of them?

 “And now me, what do I have? What is the future for me? I have dreams, dreams of being a nurse, dreams of travel, dreams of doing something - pushing boundaries.” She remembered a quote from English class the semester before “When all the world said it could not be done, he tried to prove the world wrong.”

 Oh, how she too had tried to prove the world wrong. She had taken on responsibility as fast as it came to her, she had snapped up opportunities and juggled schedules since she could remember. She traveled, she wrote, she recorded, she saved and she dreamed.

 “But all I come to are obstacles” she said aloud. “Why have I tried to prove the world wrong? Who actually cares if I succeed or not? Why am I so concerned with not avoiding dead-end roads and wrong-way streets? Why does it mean so much to me that I am not like all the rest? Is it worth it?

“Maybe it is God” She thought, “Maybe that is why being different is so important to me. He has called me to be something different, and I just don’t know what it is… If I ask Him to make me be as He wants me to be, maybe I’ll be more at peace.

 She prayed, “Help me, O God! Oh, save me according to Your mercy, that they may know that this is Your hand- that You, Lord have done it! Change me as You see fit, set me apart as You have planned.”  She made it to the dumpster and threw the trash bag in

 She turned around and headed back into the house. Soon Acts 13:47 came to her mind,

 “For this is what the Lord has commanded of us. ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be salvation to the ends of the earth’”

 “Well… Being a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the ends of the earth doesn’t seem much like a wrong-way street. It must be worth it if that is what God wants me to do.” She decided. “His grace is sufficient for me, He has started a good work in me and He shall be faithful to finish it,” She smiled, victory won.