Garbage To Compost
By Chris Pan, Executive Director
Sometimes I have a bad day. I think, “Man, that day was garbage.” I think we can all agree that the past 11 months have had its share of garbage days.
I think it is totally okay to call garbage “garbage.” But I’ve been working through a devotional by Pete Scazzero titled Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Day by Day, and one of the reflections in the book really helped me think differently about when it all seems like garbage. Scazzero writes:
“In Paradise Lost, John Milton compares the evil of history to a compost pile — a mixture of decaying substances such as animal excrement, potato skins, egg shells, dead leaves, and banana peels. If you cover it with dirt, after some time it smells wonderful. The soil has become a rich, natural fertilizer and is tremendously well suited for growing fruits and vegetables. But you have to be willing to wait. Years, in some cases.”
Milton’s point is that the worst events of human history — those that we cannot understand, even hell itself, are compost in God’s wonderful eternal plan. Out of the greatest evil, the death of Jesus, came the greatest good. The fact that God exists does not lessen the awfulness of the evil in the world; nevertheless, we can rest in Him, placing our hope in a God who is so great and sovereign that He ultimately transforms all evil into good.
Reading that is incredibly encouraging to me. We believe in a God who turns garbage into compost. And that compost will be used to grow something new and beautiful and good. Even when it seems like it’s garbage, in God’s hands, it’s actually being turned to compost.
Revelation 21:5: “And He who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
Prayer: God, what are You saying to me now? How are You inviting me to wait on You? Grant me the trust to know that You are able to turn garbage to compost, and to bring great good out of difficult and challenging times. Let me see with Your eyes. Make all things new in me today, for Your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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