What did you want to be when you grew up?
My husband wanted be a garbage man. Hanging on the side of a truck, jumping on and off, picking treasures out of other people’s trash. 
Um, not me. The smells, the germs, the filth—all unpleasant. I wanted to be a teacher, a mommy, a wife instead.
So now that I am a grown-up (sort of) and living the dream, why do the smells, the germs, and the filth of garbage still invade my world?
Because I am also called to be the garbage man.
Last Friday morning I did my homework assignment: take a walk to listen to God. No other agenda. As it happens, Friday is garbage day in my neighborhood.
How can we tap such moments [to hear the calling voice of God]?
We cannot create these moments…
But there is something we can do.
We can grow silent enough
to hear what is there.
~ SUE MONK KIDD
It was hard to simply listen. Especially just to God’s voice.
I heard my neighbor: she drove by with a hearty, “Don’t get too healthy!” I heard morning traffic, everyone in a hurry to start to end their week. I heard, of course, the garbage truck.
And I saw the trash. Some cans were still full. (The garbage men don’t take cans full of wood chips.) Some cans had debris strewed around them, the remnants of furious shredding of documents. One house had set out six cans of garbage; another, zero.
Was I crazy to be listening for God on trash day?
A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was talking.
But he became more and more quiet until in the end
he realized that prayer is listening.
~ SфREN KIERKEGAARD
“Listen,” he was conveying to me, “BE THE GARBAGE MAN.”
* * * * *
For more experiences on “Pilgrimage into Prayer,” visit Ann’s peaceful site, Holy Experience. You’ll be blessed.
9 comments:
I too love those morning walks with God. He always seems to show me something new through his creation or the activity of what is around me as I walk and listen. Love this quote:
"How can we tap such moments [to hear the calling voice of God]?
We cannot create these moments…
But there is something we can do.
We can grow silent enough
to hear what is there."
~ SUE MONK KIDD
I have learned so much in the silence. Thanks for stopping by my blog (and actually leaving a comment).
God Bless.
Jessica
I learned and heard the voice of God in the midst of a trash dump in Honduras. Where the cows, buzzards, people and children searched for food and some treasure to sell and survive, their homes of cardboard built on the trash heap. God can speak in every situation. THank you for this sweet and stinky reminder.
Blessings from Costa Rica,
Sarah Dawn
That is so awesome, and such a "new and different" perspective!
God is even in the trash! What a blessed day, coming here and finding this post!
I am telling you God can meet you on a morning walk, even on trash days. I have had several great spiritual revelations while walking on trash day! Out with old, in with the new.......throwing out our own spiritual trash etc etc. God has spoken to me on those morning walks many times! Thanks for sharing about your trash walk! :)
Looking forward to Part 2 ...
I too am looking forward to part 2....and
I need to have more God walks...Busy days need breaks....Hope you will stop by and visit my new Christmas blog....
Tell Jeff he should got meet Randy Howell, Sr. at Farriss Drive. I don't think he's on a truck any more because of a back injury(?), but he may have some stories Jeff would like.
My paternal grandfather was a "junk man" who worked at the city dump. Not quite a garbage collector on a truck, but I can relate. He used to bring us toys he had found in the trash all the time. He'd fix them so they worked again. I mentioned him in my first spoken word poem. It's on facebook. "I Am Not 'the Man'" It's in the February 2007 timeframe.
I'll pass that along to Jeff.
I found your I Am Not the Man.Very nicely done. Quite insightful. My parents picked cotton, too. For other people's farms.
I laughed at the Sanford & Son part--Jeff has always loved that show.
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