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Almost every evening my wife and I take a walk. The circuit we walk is completely contained within our subdivision and covers two and one tenth miles in length. We walk this in about thirty-five minutes which is pretty brisk for her considering she isn't quite five feet two inches tall. We have been doing this since the spring of the year and it is truly showing in both our overall health and weight. She hardly ever misses her evening walk while I sometimes fudge and don't go. Some evenings I mow the yard or have had a big day on the golf course and have already walked quite a bit.

Our walking layout takes us up our street (we live in a cul-de-sac) through a new subdivision of all Florida style homes and then around a workout facility called the Pavilion before we hit the streets and sidewalks on in the back of our subdivision.. The Pavilion is a wonderful facility with a pool, basketball court, walking track, weight room and aerobics room. It is also a little pricey so we don't use it. Behind the Pavilion is the area that has been developed for the use of skateboarders with all the appropriate ramps, runs and even railings. The driveway that runs completely around the Pavilion (our walking track) goes right by the skateboard area.

Every evening my wife and I are alarmed at one particular thing we see. There are at least five trash recepticles around the skateboard facility. Last night as we walked by, and later as we made the finish loop in our return trip, we saw two people sitting on the bench some thirty feet or so from all the ramps. Halfway between these two people and the ramps was a trash can. Almost completely surrounding the trash can were numerous plastic beverage containers which had been drained and discarded. In other words, empty bottles were lying on the ground around a trash can.

These young people who come and skateboard have been given a free facility and plenty of places to put the waste that the city knows will be generated by them as they are involved in an activity. Still, with seemingly little regard for gratitude and even less for propriety, they throw their garbage on the ground within arm's length of the very units intended to hold it. Maybe I'm just old, but that strikes me as both insult and ingratitude. When something is provided without charge why can't those who use it simply pick up for themselves rather than treat it like it's a dump?

Indeed. When we have been given the free gift of salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ who died on the cross for us, why do we junk up the scene with willful sin? "Anyone who rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?" Hebrews 10:28,29 As Ed Bousman's wife wrote years ago, "God is just a prayer away." So why do we keep throwing sin in front of Him instead of putting it away in the trash where it belongs?

"The Way" from Kevin Pauley

Everlasting Love