Let me explain how laundry works at my house. In my closet there is a huge laundry bin that my hubs and I use to put our dirty clothes in and it gets full rather quickly and kind of lopsidedly (omg “lopsidedly” is an actual word; I was waiting for spellcheck to underline it in red and call me a moron). I put my dirty clothes in the bin as soon as they’re dirty slowly filling it, while other parties *ahem* put them there once they’ve gathered enough dust on the side of our bed to become a health hazard. Also, the amount of clothes each person contributes to this bin is not quite equal. Again, not mentioning any names…4 outfit changes a day.
I digress, every couple days when I go to start a load of laundry I have a hand-held basket that I’ll use to transport the clothes from our laundry bin down to the washing machine in our basement. Obviously the hand-held basket is smaller so I can’t fit the whole bin of clothes in, just the top couple armfuls of garments. Those get taken downstairs and put directly into the washing machine or if I’m really on a rampage I’ll take several loads in the little basket down in a row to get it all into a big basket I keep next to the washer.
The only problem with this system is that there are two groups of clothes: those that get washed regularly and then those that don’t…for a long time. The freshest clothes that just got tossed in our closet bin usually get washed within a day or so, but the clothes that are in the second half of my closet bin have a tendency to end up on a missing persons report because of placement. Only when I do the bin purge and then about 5 loads in a row do I end up finding these delightful shirts, workout socks and pants three weeks after I last wore them.
I know this is a random comparison, but it really stuck out to me this morning and it’s that sin is kind of similar.
There’s these areas of questionable choices that are everywhere right now and how we treat them can be so nit-picky it makes me want to punch a wall. They’re the “Why one beer is enough if you love Jesus”, “Christian girls shouldn’t wear short shorts”, and “Seven ways to know you’re a better mom than every other person in your life” arguments. These are the clothes that are freshly dirty, that always end up as the topic of conversation, that are always on top of the closet bin and are seemingly washed over and over but just keep ending up in the same spot.
Picking apart a person when you haven’t walked in their shoes and don’t know their life is easy. You can, on your expert authority and opinion, state exactly why they shouldn’t be doing what they’re doing or saying what they’re saying. And I’m guilty of this - these topics can be tricky for me. Because while what Scripture says and doesn’t say is clear, how I interpret that and how the Holy Spirit presses on my life can be different from others.
Now...do I think you should get hammered every weekend when you have a role as a worship leader at your church? No. But if you like the taste of wine and have a glass during worship practice - I think that’s totally cool. Does Scripture say that booty shorts are not to be worn? I don’t think “booty” is anywhere in the Bible actually. But at the same time is that showcasing all that God has made you to be? Is it being respectful of those around you? Probably not. The human body is incredible, but seriously when you post Instagram selfies of your stomach wearing jean cut-offs pulled so low I can almost see your pubic hair and you write about relaxing in the park with your Bible I WANT TO PUNCH YOU IN YOUR VAGINA. And the mom thing. Look, we all love our babies and they are a priority. But you don’t know my life and I don’t know yours. Let’s just leave it at that.
Are these topics and countless others really addressing sin so much as gray area? Meh. All I know is that it’s all people seem to want to talk about and really I think there’s a much bigger picture that believers could focus all that passion on.
Which is where that second group of dirty laundry lies. These are the clothes aka sins that somehow remain under the radar, never rising to the top because they’re not trendy, just sinking down to the bottom becoming dirtier and stinkier. It’s the internal stuff that is masked over and not regularly addressed. It’s the insecurities, the hard headedness, the pride, the fear, the hatred, the anger - it’s all the stuff that somehow manages to sit in that freaking laundry pile for way longer than necessary because it’s able to. It sets up shop under the popular fresh sins when it’s up in my closet basket and then gets uncovered temporarily when I do a load or really upended when I purge our whole closet bin into my little basket. But even when the latter happens, sheer gravity puts those dirty clothes again down on the bottom of the basket in the basement and then they just sit there. Fo-re-ver. And it’s the stuff that matters. The heart stuff. The sins that are hard to deal with because it’s more than behavior and more than a thought or intent. It’s looking hard at the truth, being honest with who I am, being humbled by the ugliness of my flesh and feeling embarrassed but also relieved that I am saved and my God loves me. He knows me. All of me. And loves me big.
What’s the solution? Pretty simple. I need more Jesus. Cause laundry piles up. There are distractions to this life and projects and so many things happening good and bad that can draw my attention away from this regular chore. But I know if I just regularly did my laundry those gross dirty clothes wouldn’t fester. If I were regularly washing myself in the Word then those dirty heart sins would still happen, but they wouldn’t be able to hide away. The closer I am to Him the darker anything other than what He has for me shows up and is evident. Now excuse me while I go start a load in the washer and listen to Jay-Z tell me to get that “Dirt off my shoulder”. HOVA indeed.
