Toxic Waste

Toxic waste is a subject that kind of brings a cringe to the skin does it not?  When we think of toxic waste we think of buried nuclear waste, Chernobyl (Ukraine, 1979), Fukushima (Japan, 1911), etc.  Perhaps, on a more local level, we bring to mind lead paint chips, and the like.  Whatever comes to mind, however, we look at both immediate and long term effects of the toxic waste on people.

There is toxic waste of a human variety as well, unfortunately.  There are some folks who are simply evil....as in evil.  Their hearts are so hardened and corrupted that one can almost feel evil seeping from their pores.  While, on occasion, some of those folks can seem quite nice and normal at first glance, their actions, behaviors, values, and mores soon give them away. 

I worked as a painter for quite a few years.  At one time I had two partners who were Christians, both well grounded in their faith.  We got a call for a job, and one of them and myself went to quote the job.  As soon as I got to the house, I just sensed that something was way, way off...though I couldn't put my finger on it at the time.  We quoted the job, and the quote was accepted on the spot, and work was to begin in a few days.  After we left, I told my partner that I wouldn't be working on this job...that something got my hackles up (even though the folks there seemed quite nice at the time) and that I felt that the house was evil.  No problem, the two partners took on the job without me...and within two days they began to wish they hadn't.  The folks were home during the painting, and both partners were wishing that they hadn't taken the job and wanted out.  Their reason....the people were evil, plain and simple evil.  Toxic people.

From time to time we all run into toxic people.  That begs the question....as Christians, how do we deal with those folks?  That is a tough question, is it not?  Based on my own experiences, I believe the following:

• toxic people are uncaring and unhappy, self centered and controlling, and godless
• the toxic people I've run across seem to be the handiwork of the devil himself
• toxic people will drag me down if I am around them for any length of time
• That said, the best I can do is to pray for those folks and pray that the Holy Spirit will touch their hearts at some time.

I don't hate toxic people, nor should any of us.  I hate that they are that way.  I also know that God never gives up on anybody.  Thus, I fully believe that my job is to raise them to God in prayer, repeatedly and often, and if I have to be around them...to be the best example I can be as a christian.

 

 

Make no mistake...I am not an elitist, nor should any of us be if we are to be Christians.  That said, it is incumbent upon each of us to recognize what will and what won't "take us down".  We also need to know our limitations...know and understand what our jobs as Christians are.  Being a caretaker for toxic people isn't one of them.  Praying for them is.