Today is Day Eighteen of 31 Days of Encountering God! If you missed the kick-off, you can go HERE and find the Introduction as well as each days post! (I will be adding every day as the month goes on!
Encountering God on a (Five Minute) Friday...
I was in and out tonight for the #fmfparty... I've missed the party but my bossy lists won't get done in time if I don't stay on top of it... plus - I needed new phone lessons from my girlie soooo... Tonight, once again, I am attempting to combine my #31Days series on Encountering God with Lisa-Jo's Five Minute Friday...
Today, the word prompt is: LAUNDRY
Oh but - first - the fine print: if you don't know what FMF is! Five Minute Fridays are hosted by Lisa Jo Baker. It is open to anyone, so to learn more about it - and to jump in yourself (the more the merrier!) or just to find a linky to see what everyone is writing about today - click HERE! The idea is to simply write... for Five Minutes flat... no editing, no deep thinking - or at least REthinking, no spell check - just write! Let it flow! We all write using a prompt that Lisa posts at 10pm Thursday night (EST.) I'm loving the community of amazing bloggers and the creativity that flows from these magical Five Minutes!
So - here goes: Five Minute Friday -Laundry...
{GO}
It's not the washing and drying part of Laundry that I despise... no - I don't mind the gathering up and the sorting and the transferring from one machine to the next... one load, then another... (then another)
It's the piles of clean laundry stacked in baskets that need someplace to go. I admit to letting them sit in there, all wadded up, for days. Digging through what's clean to find what I need.
And then on Tuesday there was Lisa-Jo and sisters in South Africa and the need to have a pump and a water storage tank so they could do laundry 'easier' and suddenly what I despised more than the chore of putting clean clothes away was the reality of how much I can take for granted. The excess... of clothes, of amenities, of accessibilty to water - anytime, all of the time and how is it that the cost of one or two bottles of laundry detergent can really change the world?
As I dig through piles of clean clothes... I dig through pockets and purses...
My eyes are opened to a bigger vision and I join in... with what little I have... and in 8 hours, we change the world! Maybe not the world at large, but we partner up and we put on Christ and we act like we really believe that we are His Hands and His Feet and we let Him love through us - through our meager offerings - and we change the world for sisters in South Africa and what is not wonderful and amazing and incredible about that?
I find the reason I don't like all the putting away is because, in all honesty, I have too much. Not enough storage - that is what we in America would say... but in reality - who really needs piles and piles of clean clothes with no where to put them, when all around us - here in our cities, and across oceans, there are people with nothing to put on their backs or their feet?
I am on a mission to scale back... to pare down... to simplify... all because what I really want is an excess of His Love... His Grace...
...and I want freedom from things that pile up, so I have freedom for Him to pour out!
{STOP}
Five Minute Fridays gives us the chance to dive right in and share what He puts on our hearts! Click here to read what others have to say about "Laundry"
Linking up with The Nester and 10o0s of other #31Day Bloggers!
I know EXACTLY what you mean. The laundry in the baskets for half week...yes! My poor husband has not had a truly wrinkle free work outfit since the 90s! I also know exactly what you mean about the excess, as well. It has been a pounding theme in my brain for about 2 years now. I was reading about The ancient Greeks, and how even the most wealthy and privileged citizens owed only two tunics. I found myself stopping mid-sentence and started fantasizing about how incrediable owning 2 tunics would be! If you want to be inspired about the holiness and the comedic outcomes about one women cutting out excess you simply MUST read Jen Hatmaker's book: seven.
ReplyDeleteBless you on your journey,
Cheers,
Leah
A perspective shift is often all we need to realize the blessings. Even laundry!
ReplyDeleteYup, great perspective, friend. I'm blessed and convicted here today. So appreciate your heart.
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ReplyDeleteYes, this is so good. Love how we wound up at similar places coming from different angles - so awesome. And look at the comment mentioning Jen Hatmaker's book - that just makes me GIDDY because in just a few days WE'RE GOING TO SEE HER TOGETHER! Oh girl. I'm just so excited. And blessed, so let me get back to your post before I go off the rails here. We do have so much - I realized that even in the midst of our loss and less in our desert times. For as little as we had, for as much as it felt like we were doing without - we were nowhere near what others around the world do without and go without over the course of their entire life. And my three years of that desert time opened my eyes and my heart just a little bit more to the reality of what needs to be done and needs to be given on behalf of those who really don't have. Love where your heart is going. I want to be there with you! (sorry, I had a type-o - had to re-do this)
ReplyDeleteWe do the same thing here and I think the exact same thing. It takes seeing how others live to fully appreciate the bounty in our own lives some days.
ReplyDeleteLove your thoughts here. You're a world-changer, no doubt about it:)
ReplyDeleteI don't mind washing, drying or even putting the clothes away but I hate ironing. However, I do think I need to go a mission to thin out a few things.
ReplyDeleteDear Karrilee
ReplyDeleteYes, the poverty in my beautiful country is heartbreaking. Before apartheid the black people used to have the most poor people, but now there are just as many poor white people. Not that it matters for we are all Pappa's children. But what breaks my heart is the widespread corruption in South Africa from the government to the lowest paid people. The countries economy is going downwards very fast with unemployment reaching scary figures! Thanks for your help for my fellow countrymen.
Blessings XX
Mia
This is such a great reminder of perspective. Thanks for that. // I have often thought that we should just forego dressers in our house since my kids don't seem to use them... And the socks, they'll get their own community basket. Everyone's socks in the same basket so that I don't have to sort socks. That's the worst. Except for it's not the worst. Again, thanks for the perspective. xo
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