Metro Creative Connection
By Tom Tripp
In 1986, brothers Geno and Russell Capozziello, owners of the Connecticut Building and Wrecking Co., began dumping debris from local demolition projects in empty lots surrounding their facility in an East End neighborhood of Bridgeport.
Within a few years, the mound of rubble and muck covered two acres and reached a height of 35 feet (as high as a three-story building). People dubbed it “Mount Trashmore.” In 1990, the Capozziello brothers spent over $330,000 hauling debris away, but barely dented the pile. In 1991, a judge fined the Capozziello brothers nearly $900,000 for operating an illegal dump. Geno Capozziello remarked, “It was never supposed to get this high.”
Like garbage, sins in our lives have a way of escalating beyond our plans and beyond our control. C. Neil Strait puts it this way: “Sin does not serve well as a gardener of the soul. It landscapes the contour of the soul until all that is beautiful has been made ugly; until all that is high is made low; until all that is promising is wasted. Then life is like the desert — parched and barren. It is drained of purpose. It is bleached of happiness. Sin, then, is not wise, but wasteful. It is not a gate, but only a grave.”
In contrast, the Creator of life, the instigator of joy and the foundation of love, knows what will bring forth the greatest joy and love and contentment in our lives, and we do best when we follow God’s leading in how we live.
Ted Koppel remarks, “There’s harmony and inner peace to be found in following a moral compass that points in the same directions, regardless of fashion or trend.”
Colin Campbell offers a helpful illustration: “Freedom does not mean the absence of constraints. Suppose a skydiver at 10,000 feet announces to the rest of the group, ‘I’m not using a parachute this time. I want freedom!’ The fact is that a skydiver is constrained by a greater law — the law of gravity. But when the skydiver chooses the ‘constraint’ of the parachute, she is free to enjoy the exhilaration. God’s moral laws act the same way: they restrain, but they are absolutely necessary to enjoy the exhilaration of real freedom.”
Editor’s note: Tom Tripp is a retired pastor. Please send your comments to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.
