Rubbish. Our 21st Century world produces more of it than ever. I recently read that by 2040 every water bird in the world will have ingested plastic! And that is plastic that we have discarded as rubbish. Most of our rubbish around the world is plastics. And it's doing our planet and those that live on it, a lot of damage.
Africa has a big problem with rubbish too, and our corner of Botswana is not exempt. The most part of Botswana has gone from mud hut traditional rural living to modern urban living in less than 50 years. Not only is there plastic all across our oceans, but it has made its way to also infiltrate the Kalahari Desert.
This beautiful continent has been engulfed in plastic - plastic bags, plastic bottles, plastic wrap, plastic packaging, plastic in technology, plastic furniture and the list goes on. And that plastic has created mountains of rubbish. Villages don't have rubbish collection trucks and our capital city is not keeping up with rubbish collection, so its a big problem.
Another Kind of Rubbish
But there is another kind of rubbish that we as human beings are even more attached to than plastic.
Misplaced Honour.
It's the stuff the Apostle Paul was willing to let go of. He was willing to count the mis-placed honour as rubbish, but all too often we foolishly value it.
We were made for honour. God created mankind to be in an honourable place - a place of receiving honour from God. In being indwelt by the life of God Himself we were meant to give honour back to God and show honour for others around us and all that God created.
But our sin catapulted us out of the honourable place before God, and rejected God's life within us. Now, we look for honour in all the wrong places and give honour in all the wrong ways.
We seek honour that is temporary and we give honour that is twisted. We fail to keep an eternal perspective with our eyes fixed on Jesus.
Essentially we are prone to seek honour from rubbish and we give honour that is rubbish....
That might sound a little bold, but its how the Apostle Paul classified it in Philippians 3:4-9.
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.
Which Rubbish?
We rely too much on worldly honour that God calls garbage/rubbish, and not enough on godly honour that the world calls rubbish. We are relying on the wrong rubbish!
If we were more ready to rely on godly honour, knowing it's what the world labels as rubbish, then maybe we wouldn't be so surprised when the world treats our values and actions like rubbish. We are so often fooled into thinking that God's definition of honour and that of the world's, is the same. They are not. Cultural honour, no matter what culture we are in, will never equate to godly honour.
We have to be willing to admit that we don't like being seen or treated with contempt just like rubbish, by those around us. But we are not meant to 'like' it. We are meant to re-define it. What is 'loss' and rubbish in the eyes of the world, is reward in the eyes of God. What is reward in the eyes of God is normally rubbish in the eyes of popular culture.
Which Rewards?
We are to seek the reward that God wants to give us, the eternal reward. We are called to make an exchange of rubbish for reward. We can rely on what God calls rubbish and get the world's temporary awards and rewards OR we can count as loss and rubbish whatever the world offers and instead be eligible for God's eternal rewards.
Do we look at success in the world as a right, or as a 'bonus'. If we receive applause from the world in addition to first seeking God's 'well done', we can be thankful. But we actually shouldn't expect it.
In the Western world, we have for the past couple of centuries generally had the blessing of many societal standards of honour being reflective of God's standards. Maybe it has made us too complacent in seeking honour firstly in God's eyes? As the values and morals of the West decline away from Godliness, maybe our own hearts are being revealed as much as the world's sin? Maybe we have been doing more living before a marred and twisted reflection of godliness in society, than actually living with an active moment by moment focus on God Himself? Maybe we have been sliding into more reliance on 'horizontal honour' (before the eyes of other people) rather than 'vertical honour' (before the eyes of God), than we realise?
As we see the moral decline in the West, may it not be a time to point fingers and be shocked. May it instead be a time to look at our own hearts and be stirred - stirred to address areas where we have been relying on the wrong rubbish, and stirred to courageously and lovingly rescue others from the rubbish!
Let us not be simply defenders of godliness though. It's true that we don't have to be ashamed of the gospel. But our unashamedness in being treated as rubbish is not to be swallowed up with pride in our 'achievements', or even to win praise as heroes from other Christians. Our unashamedness should primarily motivate us to not only stand up with courage, but to step out with courage to win souls, knowing that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to them that believe. (Romans 1:16)
We all have to decide about 'whose rubbish' and 'whose rewards' to choose almost every moment of every day.
- Do we want to stand approved of in God's eyes, or the world's eyes?
- Are we willing to be rejected, discarded and trampled as the world's rubbish knowing that its much better than being rejected eternally by God?
These are the hard choices of life and what it means to lose our lives. (Matthew 16:25)
But these are also the keys to true blessing and what it means to gain our lives!
Whose rubbish are you relying on?
Whose rewards will you receive?
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