From CNN.com

Man keeps year's worth of garbage in apartment

The 35-year-old Berkeley caterer said he has saved every piece of trash he has generated during the past year to see how much garbage one person creates. In his case, it was about 96 cubic feet.

The experiment began as a way to examine his own consumption habits, Derfel said, but grew into a statement about consumerism and the environment.

"When we throw something away, what does 'away' mean?" Derfel said. "There's no such thing as 'away."'

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 What would a box filled with our shortcomings of the past year look like? If it were 96 inches tall, it would still be 8-feet high. Now imagine you carried the weight of that heavy box all year long! Some of us have, we've held on to whatever shortcomings we have gone through and would promise that tomorrow we'd get a fresh start. Yet some of us will never let that occur. Some of us like the trash collector, "Derfel" don't believe that we can really rid ourselves of refuse.  We hold on to heavy baggage, continue to be weighted down by it-- until its weight crushes us completely.

 The greatest way for us to trust in new beginnings is to receive it from the one who creates it entirely. Every new day is started by God, every new waking moment, whether it is from a catnap or from deep sleep, it is given by Jesus Christ.

 The Bible Says:

  John 1:3 "All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. ⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." (read chapter)

 And again the Bible Says:

 Colossians 1: 17 "And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist." (read chapter)

 
Now certainly if God created the world we live in within 6 days, than he can easily create for us a new heart, a new mind, a new life, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).(read chapter)

 Beloved, Jesus loves you and has a plan for your life!

 Here are a few scriptures to help leave the baggage of 2007 behind, and to help release new baggage that may try to collect itself in our hearts or minds in the year of 2008.

 
Micah 7:19 "He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." (KJV) (read chapter)

 Psalm 103:12 "He has removed our rebellious acts as far away from us as the east is from the west." (NLT) (read chapter)