Socks, shirts, towels, oh my!!! These self-multiplying piles of laundry will keep me on my toes. We are a family of 6 (the oldest is off to college) and if I didn't know it for a fact, it would be my prediction these enormous piles must represent a dozen people! Between the gym clothes, pool suits and towels and regular clothes, the 5 of us can pile it on!
Last week, I was out of town for 3 days at the YOU Lead & Living Proof Live Conference with Beth Moore and Travis Cottrell, which was wonderful by the way. In preparation for me being gone, I prepared some meals for the hubs to easily serve up and made sure all laundry was clean. All this work 1.) because I am the one who does all the meal and laundry in the home and 2.) honestly, I didn't want to be bombarded all weekend with questions: Where's the Pam spray? Do we have cinnamon rolls? Where's my other purple sock? Have you seen my cargo shorts? How do I make....?
All went according to planned! Hubs and kids had all they needed and texts were only I Love Yous and Miss Yous. I should however have thought a few more days ahead in my planning because I was exhausted physically and emotionally. This girl needs more than 5 hours of sleep and it needs to be solid sleep for me to function well the next day and that was not the case this weekend. Thank The Lord for His strength and endurance to stay alert and engaged despite my sleepiness. Saturday nights return home is a blur to me. All I remember was getting into my comfy pjs and plopping down on the couch with the kiddos cuddled up like a pile of puppies. Completely filled and completely drained in every way!
The following day was a full day of church and baseball (which happened to be back up on the mainland 2 hours north) and Monday was my bday, so no cleaning or house duties happened this day either! Tuesday was errand day to replenish the pantry and asses the upcoming house duties, baseball schedules and homework assignments. Tons of laundry needed to be done by now. With a house full of this many people using several outfits a day, it adds up! Even though the oldest does his own laundry, I will chip in depending on his schedule with school and work and this was a week he needed my extra help, so I did one load for him.
It was overwhelming. Standing in the middle of my house taking a 360 degree inventory of all that needs to be done in order to be caught up, will be the very reason I leave the house and go for a walk or work on a random project. So that my mind can stop freaking out and feeling overwhelmed. Calmly and ready to hit it head on, I make my list and get to it, doing all I can without drowning under it all. It's just what happens when you don't stay ontop of it all or plan accordingly. When laundry stays continually rotating through, food is planned for, time for rest is alloted, schedules are managed, when chores are distributed and shared, life at home is less overwhelming.
As I sat there buried under the pile of stinky little clothes, grass stained uniforms and damp towels, hungry with no clue what remnants were left to prepare for my family, gazing upon the floors needing to be swept and mirrors needing to be wiped and toilets...well, let's just say they became first priority...my heart was grateful for grace. Oh the grace of God to look upon my mess surrounding me and accept me into His arms. How wonderful to not have to "clean up or catch up" in order to immediately fellowship with Him. Sitting there on my dirty floors, amongst dirty clothes and a pitiful attitude, He sat down with me.
Friend, you do not need to clean yourself up in order to invite Him in. He is unaffected with what surrounds you. Nothing will prevent Him from answering your cry for help or fellowship. Such a mighty God, His sweet fellowship will restore to you a joy to get "it" done whatever that may be in your life today. He is a God of Rescue and a God of Refuge and Strength. Though you may be weak and overwhelmed, Grace will be your strength to accomplish what needs to be done.
So, if it has been a long time since you have been in church, prayed, had a quiet time with Him, confessed sin, fellowshiped in His name with other Believers, read your Bible, I encourage you and remind you to call upon Him now! There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus! Romans 8! Shame, embarrassment and condemnation are from the enemy who seeks to kill and destroy! John 10:10. Right where you are, amongst the piles of all things dirty, He is with you even so, to help you clean! Psalm 51:10-12. Call out to Him and He is faithful to answer!! What wonderful news! Bless the Giver of Grace! My we find ourselves overwhelmed by Grace and not by this world.
Father God, bless us in our mess and redeem us out of the weights that pull us under. Thank You for the grace you extend so abundantly for Your children. May You find us faithful to answer the calls You place in our days just as You are faithful to us. Thank You for Your Kingship and Your Friendship with us. You truly are our Refuge and Strength. Holy Spirit draw us away from temptations of this world and bring us into the shelter of Your wings that we may fellowship and worship instead of freaking out and worrying. There is no greater Name than Yours Alighty, The Great I Am, Pit Redeemer and Strength Saver, Compassionate Christ the Lord. We thank You for the Gift of Grace amongst all this stinky stuff of earth. May we be a sweet aroma to You in all we think, say and do. We worship you from the Sanctuary and the Laundry Room, in Your Sweet Gracious Name, amen.
Every time he drives off, I pray that he would be wise and pleading with God to keep him safe. So, when I hear his ringtone playing through phone minutes after he has left the house, my heart skips a beat wondering, "Oh no, what happened." Thankfully, this last call was not a 911, but there was an issue.
He had left for church and on his way stopped in to get a donut. If you could see how big his truck is, you'd know why he avoids drive thrus! Toooo big to maneuver through them. So anyway, when he made his sugary purchase and returned to the truck, it didn't start. And that's when I got the call. Thank God he was not broken down in the middle of a main road, like a few weeks ago!!! (Yes, that was scary! Drive shaft dropped mid-road! He was okay, thank God!)
The other kiddos and I were loading up already to head to church so we made the detour into Shipleys (which by the way, soooo much better than Dunkin Donuts!!), and you can imagine the delight that erupted in my car! They didn't even notice their brother's huge white truck being there, or remember that he was going to stop by. All they could imagine was DONUT HEAVEN!!! (We hardly ever buy donuts so their delight and shock was genuine! LOL)
To their disappointment, we pulled into the space by big boy's truck and connected the batteries and gave him a jump. It took a few minutes to figure out which wires were loose before it started up, but it did. We were all good to go yet now late. I hurried up and got back in the car and started driving to church, with no time for a drive through to get a "sugary delight." Yes, you can imagine the disappointment. But, we had gone there for a purpose and it was not for donuts.
As we were driving off, my little guy who is 7 years old said, "Mom, why did you have to hook up to his truck?" "He needed me to jump his battery so he could keep going. My battery was full and his was empty. If we didn't stop and help him, he would have just stayed there and missed church."
God uses us in the same way. We need eachother to help "jump start" each other when we are "empty." We all go through days or seasons where we "run out of juice" in our batteries. We are at a stand still and find ourselves unable to "go another mile." Certainly God leads us through periods of rest and waiting but being at a complete stop, or being "broken down" along the road is something completely different. We know it in our spirits when we have reached that place of fumes and eventual emptiness. We push as far as we think we can (even when we are functioning in the Lord's strength of Philippians 4:13....and it's a whole other blog about doing things in our own strength and how quickly we will hit "empty) but even those times we are giving our everything to the Lord and relying on His strength, we can still find ourselves exhausted and running on what feels like "fumes" until that day we finally register "empty."
It is then, that God sends us someone to "charge" our batteries. While our "battery" is empty, theirs is full and able to give us a much needed "charge." Sometimes it's a simple smile or a hug that can brighten our day. A lunch/coffee invite, a kind word or deed done for us or on our behalf. Blessings and gratefulness begin to overwhelm us. We didn't think we could go any further. We felt empty and abandoned and then there arrives the Lord's sweet reminder that we certainly are not alone, unusable or truly empty, we just need a "jump start" from someone with a full battery! There may even be days or seasons you have to move around some "wires" and tighten up the "connections" before your "battery" will receive the "full charge." Patient endurance!
How important to remember that there is a purpose for living in community with each other! We "charge" and "sharpen" (Proverbs 27:17) one another when we pray and fellowship together. We must be careful to avoid getting side tracked by the "sugary delights" all around us in our relationships with each other. It is very easy to just have fun, talk about fun things, discuss the world events, sip coffee, share our latest Pinterest finds...all the while, forgetting the fact we are pulled over in the space next to someone who's "battery" needs a charge.
If you are running on "fumes" or you can feel the "charge" in your "battery" slowly beginning to grow weak, be encouraged that God has not left you alone in that space. He will send rescue but you need to be ready and waiting with eager anticipation looking for it. If your "hood" is not open, I cannot reach your "battery." As a Believer, you already have the power of the Holy Spirit within you but you can quench His power to work in you. How are your "connections?" Are you dwelling in God's Word? Who is the source of your strength? Whose truth are you relying on? God sends "others" to "jump start" us. We are all at different places on our journey and thank God so that when we "break down" we can call for someone else to give us a "jump" so we don't just stay there and miss church!!
"And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle,encourage the fainthearted,help the weak,
be patient with them all." 1 Thessalonians 5:14
"And so, from the day we heard,we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patiencewith joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
Colossians 1:9-14
