The Laundry of Life

I woke this morning with a mass of thoughts and emotions turning over and over in my mind, like laundry in a dryer -- round and round, mixing together, touching one another, flopping and plopping.

It must be on my mind a lot (I wrote about “dirty laundry” in the previous post) -- maybe because laundry is before my eyes every day. I can’t seem to get it done, always more resurfacing from beneath a bed or stuffed in a back-pack. There is no such thing as “laundry day” around this house. Every day has it’s more than fair share of laundry to be dealt with. Loads and loads of it. Piled high in disarray. All shapes, colors and sizes.

Time and time again, I unload items from the dryer. One piece at a time, I shake them out and smooth them down. Some pieces need inside outing (I guess, because the outside is in? It’s confusing …) I fold them up and place them in a pile where they belong. Piece after piece, each different than the last and the next, I work through the load.

Life is like laundry in the dryer sometimes, I think. On good days or difficult days, we can find ourselves in a state of feelings and thoughts being tossed about. Mixed together, they flop and they plop, round and round they go -- loads and loads of them.

The reality is, we need help and we need truth; the Lord is faithful to provide both.

Imagine this, the Lord standing by you as you unload your dryer of “stuff.” You take out a piece and show it to Him. He helps you shake it out. Smooth it out. Inside (outside?) out it. He guides you as you fold it and place it in just the right place. He knows the perfect pile, and He knows if it is something that you need to wear (deal with) today, or if it can be put up on the shelf for tomorrow.

You see, we cannot take care of all this crazy laundry without Him. It’s too much to make sense of and cope with, and let’s face it, it is never all done and neatly put away. Every day has new laundry, some from the previous day, and some pulled out from some hidden place of the past. We can attempt to make sense of it and make wise choices with this mess, but without Him, we can’t do it.

So, how do we do all this shaking out, smoothing down, inside outing and folding? Call out to the Lord. The Lord is near to all who call on Him, who call on Him in truth (Psalm 145:18). Ask for His help; He is the all-capable helper. He’ll help you handle what is going on. It may take time, and it always takes faith. We must believe that He is helping while we look at each thing – our feelings, our thoughts, our worries -- and then trust that He will help place it in the perfect pile to either be dealt with today or some other day.

Loads and loads in life, we all have them. I can do my laundry at home on my own (although, I’d rather not) but I cannot do the laundry of life on my own. I need the Lord to help me, and I am thankful that He cares enough to do so. Next time you are doing your laundry, ask Him to help you sort through the laundry of your life. Bring the Lord in to the process and trust Him to help you today.