It’s laundry day.
How do I know that? Because 3 out of 4 of us have no clean underwear. Was that too much information?
Summer is an endless blur of motion and there are things that get left behind. Laundry is one of them. I just don’t have the time, ability or motivation to stay home long enough to do it. And by the time evening rolls around, there is other work to be done. Somehow, it just gets ignored.
The bottom line is… I’ll get to it when it works for me. If and when it’s convenient.
You know what hit me today? That can sometimes be how we view our relationship with God. Agree? I wonder if any of these statements ring true to you:
- God, I have a long to-do list and once that is knocked out… I’m all yours.
- I’m really doing ok, so I’ll let you know when I need your help again.
- The kids are a distraction since they’re home for the summer, we’ll connect again in August. Promise!
- I can’t even pull my grocery list together much less a prayer right now.
How would we feel if those were the responses we heard from our spouses, our kids or our friends? What if we were constantly put at the bottom of their list? I guarantee we’d feel pretty worthless and undervalued.
Know what, though… We do that exact thing to the Creator of the earth all the time.
Rather than put Him at the top of the list… rather than allow Him to be the first one we greet when our eyes open… rather than connect with Him regularly throughout the day…
… We treat Him like our laundry.
But despite the way we act towards Him, He is patient and kind and gives us grace… day after day after day. While we might snap, God patiently endures.
If God treated us like we treated Him…we wouldn’t stand a chance. But, when we neglect God, showing Him great disrespect, He is still patient with us. The amazing thing is that He is so forgiving and willing to draw us back into a genuine and healthy relationship with Him.
Mind-blowing.
Rather than retribution (which is often OUR human reaction to neglect), God offers us grace. And that grace is unending and undeserved.
By doing so, He provides the perfect example of what He calls us to be like in 1 Corinthians 13:4-5. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.“
I may never look at laundry the same way…
