What's Wrong With Cleaning Up Someone Else's Mess?

This morning as I drove to church, I saw an unusual sight.  A middle aged woman was out taking a walk along the side of the road.  What caught my attention was that, as she walked along, she stopped every few feet to pick up the trash that others had presumably tossed out of their car windows.  My mind immediately began to wonder why she cleaning up other peoples litter.  Obviously I don't know her answer, perhaps I should have stopped to ask, but I concluded that she must be doing it out of some sense of love.  Love for her neighborhood, love for this city, love for the earth, who knows?

As I drove on, I couldn't stop thinking about why this lady was out picking up the mess that others had left behind.  A few minutes later, a Bible verse that says, "Love covers a multitude of sins" popped into my mind.  I began to think about how many people, including myself, have made mistakes in life, and in the process, have littered our lives with multiple messes.  It is so easy to see everyone's problems, and just continue on with our lives.  Just as we drive past, or perhaps even walk right over garbage on the ground, often times, we ignore the plight of those who find themselves in a mess.  After all, they made the mess, not us.  Why should we clean up the results of someones bad decision? To make matters worse, we will often gripe and complain.  "Why doesn't someone clean up this trash on the road?" we will ask.  "Someone needs to do something about all this!" we declare with an air of feigned conviction. 

Two things came to my mind as I continued driving down the road.  The first was the thought that this is my neighborhood, my city, my place of residence.  The city of Fresno, like many other cities, is in a financial mess and budgets are being cut left and right.  It is easy to drive down the road, see a problem, complain about it, but do nothing to solve the issue.  What would happen if we started to care for our neighborhoods, and instead of waiting for them to hire more people, we ourselves began to clean up our own block?  What would happen if we decided that, since we live here, lets make it the best we possibly can?  Anyone can complain about all the trash lying around, but it takes a bigger person to actually bend down and pick something up.  I know, "that's what we pay taxes for", but that is clearly not working and its getting worse.  We can sit around, complain about it, hope it gets better, or we can do something about it.  Sure, one person can't clean the whole city, but one person can make a difference on their own block.

The second thing that came to my mind is, how much better of a place would this be if we took a little time to help someone who has made a mess of their life?  What would happen if we genuinely loved people and truly cared for each other?  What if, instead of bashing others on Twitter or Facebook, we began to cover their mess with love?  Many of us were shown a great amount of grace and mercy by God.  He forgave many of us for some serious stuff.  His love covered our multitude of sins.  Don't we owe it to someone else to help them clean up their own mess?  Some will argue that many don't want help, and that could be true, but are we at least trying?

So, as you drive out of your neighborhood tomorrow, or as you take your morning walk, you can do one of two things.  You can complain about everything that is wrong, or you can take action and do something about it.  And as we go through life, we can keep complaining about how bad society is, how messed up people are, and how crazy the world is getting, or we can step out and take a little time to get involved in peoples lives.  We can try to help those we can, and pray for those who we cant.  The choice is ultimately yours, cry and complain, or try to be a solution to the problem.  After all, what is so wrong with trying to help clean up someone else's mess?