Clasping my piping hot coffee and whisking toward the car parked gingerly in the garage, my senses failed the first tell-tale sign that something was askew: the sound of rustling. In the garage.
As I approached my car, my eye caught movement on the ground. Was that rice wiggling around?
My groggy mind caught up with my senses: MAGGOTS!
Something odorous in the flimsy plastic trash can had attracted, retained, and birthed maggots. All because I had missed the trash pick-up two Mondays in a row.
Scratch that. "Missed" isn't the correct term.
I hadn't wanted to deal with taking out the trash.
Apathy. Laziness. Call it what you want.
But I've proven that you reap what you sow.
My failure to deal with the trash (true story!) resulted in writhing maggots, jiggling their pulsating little blobby-bodies like something out of Star Trek.
Paul wrote that failing to deal with little pieces of trash in our everyday lives attracts, retains, and births larger spiritual maggots. In Ephesians 4, we wrestle with these words:
"Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil."
In other words, keep short accounts with people in your life. If something - anything - is rubbing you the wrong way, deal with it immediately.
That day.
Before the sun goes down.
Otherwise that small bit of trash will attract, retain, and birth larger maggots that will jade your perception of reality and eat away at you.
Small things quickly become big things if we don't take out the trash right away.
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