How often are you required to Take Out the Trash in your household? Living in a household of one, I’ve often wondered if it is truly necessary for our city to run pick up twice in one week, especially with these new giant green cans large enough to hide a body! However, upon spending a weekend with a precious three-month old who has the daily ability to create the most atrocious smelling waste imaginable, perhaps a daily service might be appropriate in some cases. Regardless of the frequency, the reality is that there are items we toss because they are no longer useful to us. Sometimes we deposit these items into a trash can and other times we donate clothes and goods we no longer need, but regardless of when and how, there is a need to take these items out somewhere, to remove them from our lives. The challenge sometimes arises when we must categorize which items are trash and which are still needed.

Often, there is no debate in the sorting process—a dirty diaper quickly makes it to the trash can; however, twenty-year-old t-shirts that represent places I’ve traveled, not as simple to sort into trash, donate, or keep. Personally, the sorting process for physical items, such as worn out clothing or a banana peel is fairly easy, but the difficulty comes when it’s necessary to Take Out the Trash mentally. What garbage is floating around in my head, preventing me from flourishing at life? It’s conundrums like these that keep this head spinning, such as I shared in the post Use and Eliminate; and what resonated as I viewed the film Peaceful Warrior recently.

The film, based on a novel by Dan Millman, is described as a drama of a troubled, talented collegiate gymnast who meets a spiritual guide in an unlikely place, a gas station. This spiritual guide, known as Socrates, shares his philosophy of life with the athlete, especially the idea that one must live entirely in the present moment. And in order to live in the moment of his journey to meaningful and significant goals, Dan must Take Out the Trash by determining for himself what is needed in his life and what needs to be removed. Socrates, played by Nick Nolte, asks Dan to contemplate tough issues, “Everyone tells you what to do and what’s good for you. They don’t want you to find your own answers. They want you to believe theirs. I want you to stop gathering information from outside yourself and start gathering it from the inside.”

Socrates’ advice made me pause the film for a moment, and because I engage with college students, especially student athletes, on a daily basis, I began to ponder how Emerging Adults decide when it’s time to Take Out the Trash? For most of their lives, a guiding presence has been telling them exactly what to do—what to eat, when to practice, when to sleep, and what goals to set to measure their athletic and academic performance. But what happens when these sorting decisions are now placed on their shoulders? How do they, with all the information we have access to today at our fingertips, do they Take Out the Trash and only leave in their minds what is nourishing and useful? How do they determine, at the core of who they are, what God desires for them to toss and what He wants to use for His glory?

Although Peaceful Warrior fails to specifically mention a faith-focused perspective, the implications are there that all of us desire a life that has meaning and purpose, and in order to live in the present moment, rather than in the past or future, sometimes we will be required to Take Out the Trash so that our purpose becomes clear—for the journey we are on to make sense. Emerging Adults, like we see with Dan, are typically in a season where a great deal of inside work is required. Sometimes a cleaning out period, such as a Sabbath, is necessary to maintain a proper focus. Since we all have a tendency to process life in our own unique way, I wonder what advice we can provide to those in this season that will assist them in Taking Out the Trash?

What strategies have you implemented over the years that help you successfully Take Out the Trash? Would you please consider sharing your ideas in the comments below?

Reference:

Salva, V. (Director). (2006). Peaceful warrior [Film]. Lionsgate Universal Pictures.