Article December 28, 1998 Issue

It's time to take out the trash

Clear the way to hear God's thoughts.

By Bethany Adlam Brix

It was 5:30 one morning, and I had spent yet another fitful night in extreme discomfort. Sleep had eluded me for several weeks while I struggled with constant pain and restricted breathing. I felt exhausted and fed up. Then I heard the trash truck making its way down the quiet streets and finally reaching our alleyway. I could hear the massive engine revving, as it lifted the trash bin up and over the top of the truck and dumped its contents.

In a moment of clear insight, I thought, "Why couldn't I empty my mental 'trash' just as easily as the garbage truck did?" Why indeed. Could I leave this mortal picture that had haunted me, dump all scraps of discord, and simply expunge from my consciousness all the refuse that had cluttered my thinking and hampered the healing process?

I lay in the dawning light, praying, declaring my desire for healing (had I not done this before?), and consciously addressing head-on each thought that I could classify as trash. I thought about a prickly comment made weeks before by a family member, which was still hurting me. I admitted (for the first time) to a mounting frustration with a writing project. And finally, I realized that I was feeling less than charitable about some longtime volunteer work that had previously been so joyous.

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REMEMBER TO SHUT THE DOOR