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So, when’s the last time you did the laundry of your life?  I know, you’re probably thinking that I meant to say, “When’s the last time you did the laundry?”  Nope, I meant to say the “laundry of your life?” It’s occurred to me recently that the simple chore of household laundry represents for me yet another takeaway from my time in Africa; a time which was in many ways akin to doing the “laundry of my life” or perhaps better said, having my life turned inside out.

Just consider for a minute the instructions given to us on many of the garments we wear.  “Hand wash in lukewarm water.”  “Be careful…do not mix with colors.”   Or how about this one, “Wash garment on gentle cycle.” All of these tend to get at cleaning the “surface dirt” from our clothes. However if we want to get the deepest cleaning aren’t we better served to turn our clothes inside out? As I think more about this, doesn’t it seem that it’s much the same way in life?  I mean aren’t we typically more interested in having just the “surface layer” cleaned?  After all isn’t that the best way to insure that we “look good on the outside?” Come to think of it, isn’t it just the surface layer that most of us allow others to see anyhow?  So, we asked ourselves, “Why go deeper?”  Or just how often do we find ourselves not mixing our lives with “other colors?”  Think on that for a moment.  Yikes! Or how often do we wake up and realize that our passion for living has become lukewarm because we’ve become too intent on keeping ourselves at the, “it’s all good,” gentle cycle of life?  Could it be that in our quest to live our lives on the surface we have lost the value of being taken through the “agitation cycles” necessary for deep cleaning? 

Well, it seems there’s something to this notion of periodically having our lives turned inside out.  The good news is we don’t have to go to Africa to have this happen.  It might look a bit different but we can achieve the same “ deep cleansing” right where we are.  Maybe we just simply need to exchange the lies we’ve built our life upon with Truth like we talked about last time.  Or maybe we simply need to step from the shallow waters of the façade and into the deeper waters of becoming fully known.  Certainly, it seems that if we continue to settle for a surface cleaning in our lives we, much like our garments, are vulnerable to just fading away. Perhaps we need to clothe ourselves with the pursuit of the deeper purpose for our lives.  My sense is that in doing so we’ll be less likely to fade away and more likely to reflect radiance.  Peace.

Jon Thurman

https://jonthurman.com/2012/01/