There’s an expression in coding – and perhaps in life in general – that states, “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” In coding, it's pretty straight forward. If code is written using a flawed approach, the resulting outcome will be flawed too. The same is true of bad data going in and bad guidance coming out as a result. The good news is that one can fix the code or clean the data. Humans aren’t so lucky.
We are saddled with memories that don’t erase … at least not easily. Garbage into our minds reads more like Garbage In, Copy Out, Copy Out, Copy Out … you get the picture.
First, knowing this curse of the human condition should alert us to use great care in what content – garbage or otherwise – we allow “In” to begin with. We simply can’t just delete what we welcome in and wish we hadn’t. Second, we have to be cognizant enough to overpower the Garbage that came In with sources of Goodness we choose to welcome in. Let me share about a “picnic” that was “no picnic” for me as an example.
It was my freshman year of high school, my final year at the 7th through 9th-grade junior high I was attending. As was the case near the end of each school year, we had all loaded onto buses and headed to Blue Lake Park near the Columbia River between Troutdale and PDX. There we would have track and field events, a soccer match, and a picnic. This particular year, I would also learn for the first time about the Garbage In, Copy Out rule of life.
I have long confessed to my adult girls the challenges I face at times of shedding my childhood. They offer little grace and I agree. As the Connections spiritual gifts program explains, our past and how we are wired may explain who we are, but it does not excuse any bad behaviors. I grew up through 4th grade in a very racist, Southern USA world where the color of one’s skin did culturally relate to how one was perceived, and treated, on many fronts. That Garbage had been stuffed into my mind, repetitively in the community, in my home, at little league, at family gatherings, and at church and school.
The track and field activities at Blue Lake Park had wound down and the picnic was about to begin. I have no idea why but I made a flippant comment to someone that my classmate Carol’s skin was so dark that she must be half Nword. “Excuse me. What did you just say?” came an immediate reply from a favorite teacher of mine who just happened to be an African American and Anglo biracial himself. My heart sank. I had never seen him that way before. I could not believe that this ugly “Copy Out” of the garbage within me had happened. That wasn’t who I was and certainly not who I wanted to be. Then and now. Where had it come from? And why?
This awakening, no-picnic moment became a marker in my life that changed me. But sadly, it didn’t fix me. The human mind doesn’t work that way. There is no delete and delete again option and to this day I must constantly choose to be a different person than what was poured into me for 11 years. A preacher in a sermon I heard on the radio while remodeling one of our homes early one Sunday morning noted, “The Christian man can’t just draw a line in the sand which he won’t cross. He must draw a line in the sand and then stand 30 yards back from that line.” He is so right. It's harder for Garbage to get in from that distance, and once it's in, we are left to lament with David, begging God to create a new heart and renew a right spirit within us.
The beauty of the human condition, however, is that Goodness In also means Copy Out, Copy Out, Copy Out. Paul clearly understands this when he coaches us to overpower the garbage within us with whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, excellent or praiseworthy. When we think on these things, copies of goodness will flow out.
That I still fixate on that picnic 50ish years later is telling. It clearly was one of the most nourishing picnics I’ll ever attend.