31Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. – Ephesians 4:31 and 32
This weekend my friend talked about going to a landfill, it made me remember the time I went to a Landfill. I was getting rid of my old carpet because I was placing down hardwood floors in our town home. So I placed all of the old carpet in my Saturn and made my way to the PG County Landfill. I gave them my driver’s license and they let me in. I was not able to go to the Landfill (darn), I had to drop the trash off at a bin. I really wanted to see what the landfill looked liked.
Since, I did not get to see the landfill; I decided to look it up. Here is there information I found:
A Landfill is a carefully built depression (hole) in the ground (or built on top of the ground, resembling a football stadium) into which wastes (trash) are put inside of it. The goal of all landfills is to avoid any hydraulic [water-related] connection between the wastes and the surrounding environment, particularly groundwater. Basically, a landfill is a bathtub in the ground; a double-lined landfill is one bathtub inside another. Landfills can leak two ways: out the bottom or over the top. Dirt or gravel are usually placed over the top to limit runoff.
In all most landfills they place one or more layers of clay or a synthetic flexible membrane (or a combination of these) on the bottom of the landfill to prevent leaking. The liner effectively creates a bathtub in the ground. If the bottom liner fails, wastes will migrate directly into the environment. There are three types of liners: clay, plastic, and composite. On the top of the landfill, they place a cover or cap. It works as an umbrella to keep water out. It will generally consist of several sloped layers: clay or membrane liner (to prevent rain from intruding), overlain by a very permeable layer of sandy or gravelly soil (to promote rain runoff), overlain by topsoil in which vegetation can root (to stabilize the underlying layers of the cover). If the cover (cap) is not maintained, rain will enter the landfill resulting in buildup of trash to the point where the bathtub overflows its sides and wastes enter the environment. This is why a lot of people do not want landfills near their neighborhoods
I believe all of us are kinda like landfills. We have trash (hurt, pain, anger, disappoints, etc…). We try to provide barriers at the top and bottom to maintain and keep this trash inside and contained. Despite our best efforts, we have leakage. At times it can be through the bottom (past hurts, disappointments or wrongs) or through the top (explosions about recent hurts, disappointments or wrongs). So, we need to be prepared on how to “deal” with life when our landfill leaks. We know that it will. I want you to think about your landfill. Do you think that your landfill may be leaking from the top or the bottom? What things do you do to limit the negative affects of your landfill leaking? In real life, when a landfill leaks, it is a serious problem to all that live within a radius of the landfill. Is your “landfill” affecting others for the positive or negative?
Questions: On a scale of 1 (being the lowest) to 5 (being the highest), how would you describe your landfill (emotional stability), explain? Which way does your landfill usually leak (from the top or bottom)? When your landfill leaks, does it affect the people around you, explain?
