Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Charles Dederich

Zig Ziglar tells the story of a large southern town that had a garbage dump close to town. As with all growing cities, the dump just got too close to be pleasant and something had to be done. So the people stopped dumping garbage there, removed what they could, and then covered the rest with clean fill dirt. Then they built a large shopping center which employed hundreds and served thousands.

There is a lesson in this little story, for those who would take the time to learn it. How many times have we seen people who have made a big mistake or a series of small mistakes that rendered their lives, for the lack of a better phrase, a garbage dump? I suspect that we have all been in that very situation a time or two ourselves - but what can you do? You do what the people in the town did!

The first step one must take in order to get rid of a garbage dump is to stop dumping garbage. It seems obvious, but many miss this step and are doomed to being surrounded by filth. The second step is to remove the garbage that can be removed. The third step is to cover over the garbage that cannot be removed. The fourth, and perhaps most critical step, is to build something beautiful in its place.

Would this work for you, or for someone you know? Aren't we all called to repent - to stop dumping garbage? Aren't we all called to wash away our sins? Aren't we all called to walk a newness of life? Today really is the first day of the rest of your life, with all of the promise and potential that a new life holds, if you will decide to make it so. God does not want us to live in a garbage dump. He has called us to something better! Why not accept His call?

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 3:13-14, NIV