My friend, may I ask you a question? Do you think our ability to be intimate with one another, has also been impacted by our throw-away society? Was there a time when touch and closeness were highly valued, nurtured and set aside for special care?
My friend, life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I’m Mark Brunner.
I'm the one in our family who bears the chief responsibility of checking the trash baskets around the house and emptying them on a regular basis. Sometimes it seems that no sooner than I empty one and it is filled to the brim again. The one that fills the quickest is the kitchen trash basket. Since this is the room in the house where most of the living really hap- pens, where there's living, there's trash. It's pretty much an everyday task keeping that trash basket empty.
This morning as I open the cabinet drawer to throw out a butter wrapper, I was confronted with a mountain of trash, overflowing the very top of the basket. Someone had thrown away a gallon milk jug that had taken up nearly half of the basket's volume. As I pulled the jug from out, I thought to myself: "It wasn't that long ago when these things were glass and the milkman picked them up on the back porch." Setting the jug aside, I marveled how complacent we had become about the things we use everyday. We toss them aside and move on. The milk jug I remember as a youth was something of value; something retained for another day. So few things are any more. So much is taken for granted.
Here's a story: A couple was driving home from a lovely evening out to celebrate their twenty-fifth anniversary. She was sitting way over there and he was sitting right here behind the steering wheel. She said, with a little bit of ache, "Honey, remember when we used to sit really close together in the car?" And without hesitation, he replied, "Well, honey, I never moved. I've been right here all this time." (Leslie Flynn, Humorous Incidents and Quips)
Our ability to be intimate with one another, has also been impacted by our throw-away society. There was a time when touch and closeness were highly valued, nurtured and set aside for special care. But, like those plastic milk jugs, intimacy has also become a victim of our quick and easy, disposable world. In a world captivated by the internet, where intimacy is treated so carelessly, we should not wonder why intimacy is treated with such callousness. Where there's living, there's trash. That's true. Nevertheless, we really ought to be more careful of what we throw out and what we save.
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matt 6:34)
We pray. Heavenly Father, we live in a disposal society. We use things and expect that we can throw them away as soon as we are finished using them. We not only dispose the materials that we wear, eat and use up, but we also use relationships. We despise marriage because we want relationships without it and want to keep the option to throw it away. We despise marriage vows because we don’t want to be trapped inside a marriage. Ultimately, our willingness to throw things away makes us less able to feel, less able to be willing to touch and to hold with feeling. Forgive us Father for such callousness. Thank You for Your Word which points us to commitments and understanding that life is not all about consumption, but is all about obedience and commitment. In Jesus name we pray. Amen!
Therefore my friend, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry for itself; each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matt 6:34) This Passing Day. May this passing day honor our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and be a blessing to you and everyone you meet. Find a stranger and say hello. Don't let another day pass without your day blessing someone else.
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<thispassingday@gmail.com> From Beech Springs, God bless you for Jesus sake.