Waste or For Recycling?

Did you know that there is an island of trash swimming around the Pacific Ocean? Yesterday I was reading about it. It made me ponder about the amounts of “trash” swimming inside of us without any restraint. Moreover, as I was reading the article, I found myself thinking: “this rubbish should be picked up and recycled.” Then I thought of so many moments and things in my own life that I do not recycle. I mean, all that useless resentments, old hurts, old habits, etc.

Hence, the title of this blog, are those things a waste or just in need of recycling? Can they be recycled? Do we have the means to transform a bad experience into something new?

According to God we do. Everything is an opportunity. Nothing is a waste in our lives. Good things give us immediate joy, peace, happiness, strength, and so on. Bad times teach us lots about the world, ourselves and strengths we didn’t know we had. Failures can make us more understanding with other people’s struggles, more merciful, able to forgive other’s failures…

So I found myself musing on how to do this recycling. My answer came from the Word of God; in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells the disciples about the problems they will face; he says… “You will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, as evidence to them and to the gentiles (Matthew 10,18)” As ordinary people, the only way to speak to governors and kings about Christ was to be the prisoner in a trial. Looking back in my life I realized that much of that “trash” made me able to do things that otherwise I would never have been able to do. Thanks to God we have the capacity to recycle trash into a new life.

Why am I happy?

Which reasons do I have to be happy? I like my life; it is not always an easy path (which one is it?) but it is never sad. It has lots of good moments; in fact, God has given me the gift of being happy with what he gives me so, usually, I don’t lack many things.
I begin each day with a time of prayer in which I read the Bible. God tells me again and again that he loves me; that the world will not fall out of his hands (even if it seems to me that is doing so) and that there is hope for the future. In his Word, Christ reminds me every day that he believes every person I meet to be worthwhile, to the point of giving his own life (and mine) for him or her. Thus, even when I get up a little worried, pessimistic or gloomy, God manages to convince me of the many reasons I have to love the life he has given me.
People also make me happy. Certainly, there are many who neither sow nor peace nor love; however, there are many more who do so. I've lived in four countries: Spain, England, USA and Italy, and my experience has always been the same. The world is full of good people, really and honestly good; who love and fight for the loved ones and for the unknown people they find on their way. Surely, they do not make so much noise as the others, but their lives are a source of happiness for everyone they meet.
I am happy also because it is Christ’s gift for those who listen to what he says: “But now I am coming to you and I say these things in the world to share my joy with them to the full.” (John 17, 13)