[Darris McNeely] A friend of mine is selling his home. And in the inspection, it was discovered that he has asbestos in his house. And so he's had to call in a company to remove this asbestos, which, as you know, is a toxic element used to be used quite extensively in buildings. And a number of years ago, it was discovered that asbestos can lead to cancer. And so it was banned. If you find it in a building, it has to be removed through a laborious and expensive process. It reminds me of situations that we get into where the environment might be toxic, as with asbestos in a housing environment or an office environment. You don't want it and you wanna remove it, or in some cases, you just remove yourself.

There's a Proverb 26:20 that talks about what we do when we're in toxic environments where people are involved. It says in verse 20, just to get the context, "Where there's no wood, the fire goes out, where there's no talebearer, strife ceases. As charcoal is to burning coals and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife." Contentious people, people who are angry, people who have an agenda, people who are just mean, people who don't know how to interact properly with others can create contention, problems, a toxic environment. It goes on verse 22, "The words of a talebearer are like tasty trifles, and they go down into the inmost body."

And so, what happens if you have a toxic environment created by some chemicals, some environmental problem, you remove the toxicity, you remove asbestos from a home, from an office, so it doesn't come in and cause cancer. What happens when you have situations, personal relationships in a home, in an office, in life, where there was contention, where there are people continuing to fuel the fires of contention, as the scripture talks about, you remove the source. You remove sometimes the source, sometimes you have to remove yourself. It's an important principle. My friend is removing the asbestos from his home so that people can come in and enjoy that home that they buy without any fear to their health. Sometimes we have to remove ourselves from situations that might just be that way, toxic. It's an important lesson from life and from the Proverbs.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.