By Ben Disney
Richard Heizer deserves the credit. He asked a simple question that no one had asked in eight years at the church. The question was: “Why do we have two trash dumpsters sitting side by side near the SAM Building?” No one, it seems, had a clear answer. So, Richard set out to find one. He discovered that when the two congregations merged together eight years ago, both congregations had two separate contracts with the waste management companies; so both dumpsters came with the merger. And that explains why two trash dumpsters have been sitting side by side for the past eight years.
Problem identified, solution found. Soon there will be only one trash dumpster, and the church will benefit from the lower costs. The story made me laugh and also made me think. Ironically, both congregations brought their garbage containers with them when we chose to come together. All that just proves that no matter how good we are or how careful we might be, we always seem to bring some of the garbage of our past to a new relationship. Truth be told, in the ensuing eight years there’s been very little garbage. Instead there’s been an avalanche of blessings and a ton of good memories of what God has done and continues to do in this place.
And one last thought. I asked Richard Heizer if both trash dumpsters were full on an average week, because I was concerned what might happen if we suddenly eliminated one; would we have enough space for the church’s garbage given that we reduced the capacity by half? That’s when he told me the two trash dumpsters remained full each week not because the church produced that much garbage on a weekly basis but because so much of the trash that filled both units was dumped by people in our neighborhood who were just looking for a place to get rid of their excess garbage.
So let me get this straight. Some of our neighbors have so much garbage in their lives that they’re forced to come to a church like ours just to try and get rid of it. There’s a sermon in there somewhere.
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