That crazy Key...

I couldn't have made this up if I wanted to...

So some of you may remember last month the story that I told you about my key and how I had lost it and what God told me in the process...well...it happened again...

So I had left the house to go work out and had finished and come home. I was getting out of my car and I saw that I had some travel mugs (I love travel mugs!) that needed to be washed. So grabbed them in one arm and in the other hand I had my little key there and an empty starbucks (I love starbucks...I love coffee...) cup that I was going to throw away in our big green trash container that you have to take out to the street every week.

Now as far as trash containers go, ours is pretty normal...its green...we put our trash in it...it stinks...nothing special about it. So I'm walking over to our big green trash container with my starbucks cup and Key in hand. For about 2 seconds, the thought flashed through my mind "what if I drop my Key in the trash?" but I quickly dismissed that thought because I felt like I had a pretty good grip on it and besides, who on earth would throw away their car key?

So I open the lid and then promptly procede to throw both my used and empty Starbucks cup AND my key into our completely normal and 2/3 of the way full, big green trash container.

Hm.

I have to be completely honest. The first word that came out of my mouth, wasn't very Christlike.

But then I did what anyone in my position would have to do...I began taking out the trash. And that is when I began to realize that what I thought was a completely normal green trash container, was actually something special. I don't quite know how to describe the aroma that was emmanating from the container, but Fierce is a good place to start. And as I'm pulling bags of rotten garbage and soggy pizza boxes out the trash container, I am desperately hoping that somehow, someway that my Key has gotten stuck on something maybe halfway down, so that i can gingerly reach in and pull it out. But with each passing moldy banana peel and empty Starbucks cup (do I really drink that much coffee??) my hope of not having to go all the way to the bottom quickly diminished.

And finally...there it was. Nestled in a pool of putrid trash water with chunks floating in it. And as I reach down to the bottom of our trash container, I was hit in the face with an odor that reminded me of the great smoking mountain of trash that i witnessed in the Phillipine Islands...Unbelievable.

I grab my Key and as I'm putting the pizza boxes and bags of garbage back in the trash container, I say out loud, "Well God...what was the point of that one?"

As I was coming into the house, trying not to gag as I relived what I had just experienced, I felt the still small voice of God begin to speak to my heart. And this was what He reminded me...

He reminded me that there are going to be times in our lives where we are going to have to go through some of the stinkiest, smelliest things to actually get that something that is extremely important to us. But if we will stay focused, and keep our eyes focused on Him and not on the trash around us, He will bring us through those moments with that which matters the most in our grasp.

Keep your eyes on Him my friend. He is the Key...