Sin & Shame

I have an hour commute to work, each way.  I mainly listen to music during this time with an occasional podcast.  A few years back I noticed how angry I was while driving, it seemed every little thing other drivers were doing had me yelling at them.  Things like “ nice turn signal,” “sure you can cut me off” or just, “what on Earth are you doing?” I would arrive at work or home very agitated and I realized my commute was robbing me of time with my family and time to be productive.  Lent was coming up and I don’t always give something up but sometimes try to incorporate a better habit into my life.  I decided I would find a Christian radio station to listen to instead of my regular stations.  So when lent began that year I tried a couple of different stations I found I liked the music best on The Message on XM radio.  I enjoy the more modern songs that they play and pretty soon I did not miss my usual music stations.  But even better than that I noticed how calm I was on my drives. When I arrived to work I was ready to tackle the day and when I returned home, I did not need as much time to decompress. 

One day a song by the Sidewalk Prophets, Come to the Table, caught my attention.  There is a part of the lyrics “So that sin and shame that you brought with you, You can leave it at the door.”  I could imagine a trash can at the front door of the church where you would be able to leave your sin and shame.  A few weeks later our Pastor’s sermon brought this image to me again and I felt the need to do something with it.  I talked to the Pastor about my thought and asked if I could make a container to put in the narthex, she agreed and I set to work. It took some time but I finally found a small trash can that was not so plain it would be mistaken as trash. Next, I used my Aunt’s Cricut to make the lettering and printed up a little set of instructions to place near the container. The thought was to have little scraps of paper for someone to hold and think about what they want to let go and then throw the paper away.  I hope that when people see the bin it will help remind them to let go of things from the past, I know this is a reminder I often need.  My hope for you is that you also can let go of something that has been holding you back.  Remember, the you of today does not have to be the you of yesterday, today you get a new start to work on becoming the person you know you can be.