We live in a society of “Throw it Away.”   From the items of fast food, relationships and even marriage everything is thrown away.

I took my daughter to the emergency room and she needed stitches, they brought out a throw away kit to sew her up.  The needle, scissors and hemostats went in the garbage when they were finished.  What happened to an autoclave to sterilize the instruments?  Where will this mentality of throw it away end.  Our landfills are full of garbage and there seems to be no end in sight.   In the US we average 4.5 lbs/day/person or 1650 pounds of garbage per person per year.  Our collective mentality these days seem to be pointing toward a “throw it away” mindset.

Is there any hope for relationships today? Do we throw those away too?  Married adults now divorce two-and-a-half times as often as adults did 20 years ago and four times as often as they did 50 years ago.  Between 40% and 60% of new marriages will eventually end in divorce.  I have 7 very close friends and of those 6 have been married more than 25 years.  That is just my age group – but what about the post baby boomers and beyond?  Did we create this throw away society by making life fast pace and easy?  Did Styrofoam create this mentality?

As a coach for more than 25 years, athletes often would come to me and tell me they were going to quit my team.  Players with strong family relationships would come and tell me they wanted to quit while the kids with questionable home environments would quit and never show up again.

For those that came to me with their decision to give up, I would talk to them about their reason for their decision.  To often the root for their decision was a feeling that they were not contributing or not getting to play as much as they liked.  I told them that I wanted them to think about it for a day or two and then come back with their decision and I would honor it.  I also told them that more than likely they still would not get to play as much as they would like without hard work on their part.  I told them that quitting becomes easier the more you do it.  Quit the team, quit your job, quit your marriage – it just becomes easier each time.  Quitting is like throwing it away or wasting.

The “road of life” that we each travel isn’t one endless stretch of paved highway, but more often like a dirt road after a rain with potholes, bumps and curves.  Life is very unpredictability that is what makes it so interesting! We have to hang on to see what’s around the next curve and get through the next hole.  It’s that same unpredictability that makes for some real gut-tightening questions and fears as well.

I do feel that we, too often, give up on our dreams too easily and quickly – perhaps, just one small step short of success.  So what do you do when the going gets tough and you feel like quitting?   How do we break this cycle?

A friend told me as we were talking about this subject – He said, “People live in a microwave society.”  That is that we want it now and we want it fast.  We want to throw it away when we think we are finished.

Balance, unselfishness, and loyalty are a few ideals that our teachers, preachers and our family members have instilled in us.  Patience, thrift, and persistence are other virtues that the church teaches.  We are all given a type of moral compass to leads us through life.  We all know that throwing trash out the window of a car is wrong, after all it is a law.  But when someone does it, it causes a stir in us – or does it?

What does Jesus say about these attitudes?  I didn’t find much about it in the bible, but we can be sure that the social issues of today would be on the forefront as were the socials issues of His day. Jesus did teach that each of us should live with courage and boldness in all that we do.  In His parables we find Jesus conserving resources.  Jesus in John 6, we read about how he multiplied the fish and loaves to feed 5,000 people. After they’ve eaten, he tells His disciples to gather up the left over fragments so that nothing will be wasted. Think about it, Jesus doesn’t need to worry about running out of bread; he just fed 5,000 people with five loaves! He can make more. But he still shows a concern that resources be used responsibly.  Don’t just throw them away.

Because of what Jesus did on the cross, we have the promise that our world will be renewed and made whole again (Romans 8.19-24; Colossians 1.20). And one day, this renewed and perfected earth will be our eternal home (Revelation 21-22). Doesn’t it make sense to take good care of our world, relationships, our marriages, for Jesus’ sake?

The worst thing that we could do would be to throw away our lives.  I think the most awful words we could hear would be – Jesus, “I did not know you“.

If you are here you are interested in the teachings of Jesus Christ and are trying to live a life according. As followers of Christ we are called to be faithful stewards of our earth and to think about other more than we think about ourselves. If you are Living Bold you are striving to be more like Christ in all areas of your life protecting resources, relationship and getting the most out of life.

- Steve Rusk

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