The Spiritual Discipline of Picking up Trash

Yesterday several Georgetown students came into my neighborhood to do a trash clean up.

At first I'd tried to be fancy--I called all the formal area Watershed societies and tried to set up something official, something where they would send out a staff member to share information with us. Hopefully then we'd also get a very neat project--something where we could feel accomplished at the end and really help change the place.

But in the end all the societies were booked for the date I needed to choose--and I felt God leading me again and again to simply go out and pick up trash on the street.

Several reasons--it's simple. It's also very needed--there is often---as we found trash bags full of litter lining just one of our neighborhood streets. I think it's also a lesson in humility. For one---we're cleaning up a mess we didn't make. One person reflected that this happens at Georgetown all the time--someone else cleans up our mess that they didn't make!

But one of the most significant things I find about picking up trash is that it's completely overwhelming. You can never be done. And if you are---well in two days the problem will look just like it does now again. I think it's a great lesson for social activists. A good reminder--you can make a small dent in a social problem--hunger, poverty, homelessness.......but at the end of the day, the problem is still daunting, and will likely resurface when you stop paying attention.

I don't see this as a reason to lose hope--except hope in ourselves as saviors of the world and instead to reconsider our means of social activism and social change to reflect the reality of Christ's ability to be the only one to really change the world--even if through us sometimes.