Remove The Waste!

Remove the dross from the silver, and a silversmith can produce a vessel; remove wicked officials from the king’s presence, and his throne will be established through righteousness. Proverbs 25:4,5 NIV

In order for a silversmith to produce valuable artifacts, the first thing they must is to remove all the waste matter--the crud that has no value. The same is true for those who create items from diamonds (mined from layers of coal) and gold (burning off the crud in a hot fire).

How does this segment speak to our daily lives? If we're going to increase our value or worth, we must remove the crud that keeps us from revealing the true nature of who we are.

On an individual level--many of us have not achieved the success that lies deep within us because we've allowed past mistakes and failures to cover and hide the beauty inside. True beauty is often never seen in people simply because they are not willing to get rid of the waste--the crud--that has no value. Sometimes, that means we have to get rid of people in our lives that do nothing but distract us from the path that God has established for us. Sometimes that means we have to be willing to see ourselves--without make-up or delusional perceptions and work to rid ourselves of those things that keep us from seeing our worth.

On a collective level--looking at our communities, our society, our country--we must be willing to remove the crud that has no value. That means we have to see--without bias or delusional perception--all that is going on around us and be willing to remove everything that is "waste" and has no value. Sometimes we must let go of ideologies that oppress and suppress--thinking one group of people is superior to another is one such ideology. We must learn to value all human beings and stop promoting hatred because of race, ethnicity, gender or beliefs. We must stop belittling people simply because they don't agree with us and we must certainly stop using intimidating, bullying tactics to get our way--in anything.

When we see these things (aforementioned) we must be willing to call them what they are. Racism is a personal bias against others because of a person's race or ethnic background. Bigotry is hatred of people simply because others are different from them. And any time a person lies--there are no black lies or white lies, little lies or big lies--they are liars. If we're not willing to be realistic about our biases--we hold onto the dross--the waste--that has no value and we never see what we can truly become.

It's time we remove the waste--everything that has no value in our lives. It's time to remove the racism that only leads to racial tensions across the country. It's time to remove the bigotry that allows people to think they are better than someone else. It's time to remove the bias against people who believe God versus those who don't. When we realize that God has given us CHOICE in all matters--we begin to understand that none of us are right about anything and we need each other to survive this journey called "life."

If we're not willing to remove all that has no value--the crud from our lives--we will continue to see violence perpetuated against people for any little reason. We will continue to see hatred spread like airborne diseases and we will continue to see a world--filled with ideologies that mean nothing--decimated by bigotry.

Remove The Waste from our thoughts of self and others and we remove the crud in our society so we can shine like beacons of brilliant light!