fresh flowers for October 21

Dirty Little Secrets
©2005, lani wiens
a fresh flowers original

I have a monster in my house. It is an insidious creature that makes it’s way through our rooms each day, throwing clothing out of drawers, hiding socks and soiling towels. Slowly but surely - if this monster goes unchecked there will be a mountain of smelly clothing and linens waiting for me in the basement. But does that monster stop there? Oh no! If I give way to it’s quietly whispered suggestions of, “Don’t do it now, tomorrow will be fine.” Or, “As long as it’s clean….” Things get even worse!

With the large number of people in our household, keeping the laundry monster at bay is pretty much a daily task. But there are times when the lies of, ‘it’s too hard’ and ‘I’m too tired’ get the better of me and that gleeful, cackling creature wins. That’s what happened over the last few weeks. The laundry monster took over my house. I was tired and laundry seemed too hard to deal with. Once in awhile someone would go downstairs and at least throw something through the washer and dryer. But you see, that laundry monster doesn’t really care whether his mountain is clean or dirty, he just wants one to sit on! My procrastination affected my whole family, people couldn’t find pyjamas, socks or underwear. Finally, I went in there this week and shut him down, at least for this round.

As I was doing my laundry duties I couldn’t help but compare my laundry woes to ‘favourite sins’. You know the ones I mean – that thing you do that you know you shouldn’t be doing that you actually like doing that you say you’re sorry about, make a diligent effort for a brief while and then head right back into it. This last week we’ve been learning about repentance in our Bible study. Repentance means that we turn AWAY from our sin and TO the kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy. Immersed in my laundry piles was definitely NOT righteousness, peace and joy, but I had brought it on myself through my own laziness and procrastination. I needed to repent and I did as I saw what God was showing me.

It doesn’t take much before that sin piles up into an overwhelming mess. It’s those little lies that the enemy breathes into our ear that go like this, “Just this once.”, “Do it tomorrow, one more day won’t matter.”, “It’s not really that bad, other people are far worse than you.” And on and on it goes, a seething torrent of self-justifying thoughts that will bring us further and further into bondage and slavery. There is nothing left to do once you see where you are. Repent. Turn away from whatever has you bound and turn toward the kingdom of light. The absolutely glorious news is that the second you do, God’s boundless forgiveness is waiting for you. He said He would forgive us when we confess our sin (1 John 1:9)

Today my sin showed up in my laundry room, I don’t know where yours is, but I do know there is a way out. Repent, then that dirty little secret of yours will have no more power over you. Kingdom of Light - 1, laundry monster – 0.