Lessons from a Load of Laundry

It isn't lost on me.  The irony of this moment.  I stare down into the depths of the darkness.  The water is murky, a churning gray...already tainted with the dirt from that which is being cleaned.  The spindle with its grooves, turning, pulling down the pieces of material and pulling them under.  Each churn brings the scraps of cloth-safe as they are, contained within the safety of the encircling basket-into contact with one another as well as the agitator, practically beating the ugliness and stain right out of it.  The repeated wrenching almost feels as if it will tear the clothing asunder...but it does not.  They will emerge-one hopes??-free of stain, returned to the original unsullied state, once again like new.

I would not have seen this.  I would not have been so mesmerized.  If I weren't here.  If I weren't looking for the joy.

So much swirls around us, out there in this sin-stinking world, and if we don't look, ask to see, really want to see, we won't find the joy that is there in front of us.  The joy that resides in the activity of the seemingly mundane.

Oh, but the laundry??  Really??  How can any of that make sense of what doesn't make sense?


From the earliest point captured by memory the draw of being wife and mommy has pulled at my heart.  When I thought I lacked direction, when I thought I didn't know what I wanted to do...when I thought I didn't fit in....it was only me, not conforming to the patterns of this world.  It was only God, cementing deep within me the desire to do His bidding.

A desire that quite simply is the highest calling...

The calling to glorify Him.

When my yes is whispered to Him, He merges my desires with His plan.  When I lay down my life, when I offer up to Him all that I have and all that I am, with a willingness to do all that He asks of me, He is glorified.


Three weeks ago today a new direction for this season of my life was made known to me.  Three weeks ago today that which held me bound to the thought of doing what I thought I was supposed to be doing, of doing what would make me look good to the masses, of doing what others thought I should do...was loosed.

Setting me free.

Free to be criticized, ridiculed, laughed at.  Free to do what isn't normal and isn't as freely accepted or supported by mainstream culture.

Leaving me free to do what I am supposed to do.

Free to do what God wants me to do.

Free to find joy where before I had found tedious, endless repetition.

Free to not be crushed by a crazy, over-filled schedule.

Free from being required to live up to someone else's standards of who I am supposed to be...too stressed to look for the joy under the ugliness that can be everyday life.

Free to indulge in the luxury of a load of laundry, endlessly churning, continually cleaning, making the clothes like new again.

Free to wonder anew at how I feel His calm assurance, I know and can trust the safety of His hands-hands that contain me, safely encircling me, calming me and comforting me while the agitations of this life claw at me, pulling me under.  I marvel again that while it may seem the repeated wrenching and wringing may almost tear me apart, He is my gracious Father, He brings me forth, cleansed from sin, restored, like new.

I do not have to hope that He will.  I know it to be true.

25)  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; 

I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.  

26)  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; 

I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  

27)  And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to 

follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws.

29)  I will save you from all your uncleanness.

Ezekiel 36

1)  I love You, O LORD, my strength.

2)  The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;

my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.

He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Psalm 18