You should always take your trash out to the dumpster on Sunday mornings.

This was the conclusion I came to yesterday morning at 8:30. I was all ready to leave the house for church when I realized the kitchen trash needed to be taken out. Something was, let’s just say,“not so fresh” in the can. But I was dressed and ready, Bible in hand. I thought maybe it could wait until I got home, but even on the cooler days in Florida, kitchen trash has the tendency to ferment a little quicker. So, with a huff and a rolling of my eyes, I grabbed the bag and headed out to the dumpster at the end of the parking lot. Trash removal before church. Seemed so unspiritual.

And then it hit me.

It’s exactly what we need to do every time we leave for worship. Check to see if there’s trash that needs to be removed. How often do we leave the house, dressed in our Sunday clothes, Bible in hand, and enter worship without taking care of the things in our hearts that are “not so fresh” first? We’re encouraged to “prepare our hearts for worship”. But I honestly don’t really think about it as much as I should.

Until yesterday, with a bag of trash in one hand and my Bible in the other. I might just have to make it a Sunday morning habit. Check the trash in the kitchen. And check my heart, too. Then take out anything that needs to be taken out before getting to church, before entering into worship – attitudes, ungratefulness, bitterness, weak faith.

Take your trash out often. But especially on Sunday mornings.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51.10

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:22