Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: END (06/09/22)
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TITLE: Cleaning Up Cleaning Out | Previous Challenge Entry
By Art Fahy
06/15/22 -
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A fisherman reels in his catch while a trio of seagulls glide overhead inching closer hoping to grab some bait when he’s not looking. It’s a halibut about eighteen inches in length. He glances my way and holds up his prize smiling and yells, “this will make a good meal.” I give him a thumbs up.
I reach the group. They’re drinking coffee and eating bagels. Roger who orchestrates the clean up greets me with a hug and tells me he is glad I’m here. We set up tables and lay out brochures. The brochures inform people what today is all about and why clean oceans are important. Various groups from the area participate in the endeavor such as high school students wanting to log community hours, scouts, and locals.
Roger hands out the items we will use and issues instructions. People pair up or go out in sets of threes. I prefer to go alone because it gives me a chance to feel a oneness with nature. Walking south I comb the beach picking up debris and recording each item on the card. I glance out into the vast Pacific Ocean and spot a few surfers laying on their board waiting for the wave of the day.
My mind wanders and I think what if the beach represents my heart and the trash is my sin? The sins of pride, anger, fear, anxiety and stress. Seeing the trash, picking it up and dropping it into the trash bag would be similar to God showing me my sin, me asking for forgiveness and repenting. Some trash is buried in the sand just as my sin is buried deep inside my heart. To get to the trash I have to brush the sand away. It’s like sin I don’t always see it so I have to ask God to search my heart and show it to me. Cleaning the beach is similar to cleaning my heart.
I mosey back to our headquarters and hand Roger my card with the contents of what I collected. I help him carry the tables and brochures to his car. “Jim we had a great haul this year.”
“That we did.” I said.
Roger hands me his business card and says, “next time you come down call me we’ll have lunch.”
“I’ll do that.”
The next day I take a stroll on the beach. Cigarette butts, candy wrappers and other trash litters the beach. It looks as if the beach was never cleaned. What is wrong with people? Don’t they have any regard for God’s garden? Then it struck me how many times have I sinned, asked for forgiveness and turned around and sinned again? Does God look at me and think when will it end?
Just as the beach is littered twenty-four hours after it’s cleaned, my heart will be littered. The Holy Spirit, my counselor, lives within me and will guide me away from sin and toward God if I allow him. I am a new creation but sin will find a way into my heart. The battle with sin will continue until I reach the the finish line in this life.
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The spiritual analogy was great.
Keep up the good work!