Grace Picks Up the Poop

Sometimes I feel like God has a funny relationship with me because He likes to ask me to do funny things, or at least what seem funny to me.  You see my husband is one of those who, when out walking, when he sees a piece of trash on the ground, he will stop, pick it up, and carry it with him to throw it away. He always does.  And of course I admire that about him, but I don’t always necessarily do the same.  I mean, I’ve got my kids, right? And who wants to pick up someone else’s garbage?

But sometimes I feel like God asks me to do something and, just like I do with Dutch, looks me in the eye sternly and challenges me: Will you obey me in all things?  About a month ago I had such an experience.  I was out doing my daily walk and right along Salamo Rd, there was a little blue garbage bag. Now Jeff and I often joke about West Linn and the little blue bags. Everyone has them. They are for picking up dog poop, and since everyone in West Linn seems to have a dog, and they all take them walking, they all carry around these little blue garbage bags which they use to pick up their poop, tie up, and carry with them on their walks.

So on my walk, there in the middle of the sidewalk was one of these poop bags–full.  Sick.  I veered around it, thinking, “Gross, who would leave their poop bag in the middle of the sidewalk.”  And immediately the thought entered my mind: “Pick it up.”  I shrugged it off. By now I was a ways past, and I didn’t want to turn around, march back along the busy road and scoop up the poop bag. Come on.  I kept walking.  After I got home I knew I’d disobeyed. It might sound silly but I knew that I’d missed an opportunity to obey God.  But I was home, I didn’t want to go back, so I figured that was that.

The next day I went for my daily walk.  To my amazement when I got to that spot, the poop bag was still there! I slowed down, and realized that God was probably giving me another chance to obey Him. But you know what? I’m ashamed to admit it but I didn’t pick it up.  By then it was smashed on the sidwalk (sick!) and it’s always easier to disobey God the second time than it is the first, so I left it.  The next time I went by it was gone, and I realized I really had missed a chance.  Someone else had done what I was too proud to do.

Yesterday as we gathered for our women’s ministry meeting one of our leaders and I were talking.  She said, “I have to show you this devotional I read the other day.”  I took it from her and read the brief devotional story:  A man was walking along the sidewalk just as an expensive flashy sports car was pulling up at a traffic light.  The man finished his soda and tossed the empty pop can out the window into the ditch.  The man walking, a Christian, continued walking across the street and thought to himself, “What kind of jerk throws his pop can out of the window?  That is what sin does!”  Immediately he sensed God’s voiced prodding his heart: “Sin throws out the pop can, but grace stoops down and picks it up.”

Grace picks it up.  You know it’s so easy as Christians to expect the people around us to live as if they were Christ-followers.  But why should they? How can people who are dead in sin be expected to live as if they are alive in Christ?  Why should we expect unbelievers to have prayer in school, to speak wholesomely, to remain faithful to their spouses, when they don’t have Christ’s new life living in them. They live as sinners. Our lives should then be a response of grace.

So today I went walking, and would you believe it, as I turned the corner onto Salamo road, there it was–a blue bag, full of dog poop.  I kept walking past, but only a few steps. Grace picks it up. I stopped.  I turned around the stroller and went back.  I was a little grossed out as I picked up the doggie defecation, but carried it home.  And as silly and small as it may be, I finally sensed God’s smile on me, I finally had obeyed.

Well the humorous part was that I refused to bring the poop inside our apartment and we are a long ways from the dumpster, so I just sat it on our front porch.  When Jeff came home from work he said, “Someone left their blue poop bag on our front porch!”

I smiled. “No hon. It was me.  I learned something today.  Grace picks up the poop.”

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From the archives. Learning it again…