Hanging Laundry

It hit me one night as I was teaching from the book. I was making a point and I looked to my left and I saw my boxers hanging out to dry in front of everyone. For a second the embarrassing thought entered my mind, “Is anyone else aware that my underwear is just hanging there?” Considering that I’m a pretty big guy, it’s almost like a flag was flying at full mast. I didn’t make a big deal of it that night and it seemed like no one else did, but it does bring me to a lesson that I’ve been thinking about for a few weeks.

Nobody likes their dirty laundry hanging out in the open. It’s embarrassing and shameful, especially if you are someone who places value in your self-worth. We try our best to hide and confine our dirty laundry so that no one can see it. But if there’s one thing that I’ve learned since living in EA it’s this: you have no control over when your laundry will be exposed.

You may think that you are patient until you run into a situation where your “dirty laundry” hangs out and you lose your patience. You may think you are sacrificial until you are tested and recognize that you aren’t that sacrificial. Being in a new environment definitely reveals a lot of who you truly are.

Whether overseas or at home, the principle remains the same — our dirty laundry will be exposed. So the question we must ask is “what’s next?” One response is to try to hide our dirty laundry again. We may try to suppress it, or even worse, justify it in our lives. In essence saying that it is okay to embrace the dirty laundry of our lives. Another way is to wash that dirty laundry on our own. We can run it through the washing machine all we want, but in the end, the laundry will get soiled and dirty once more.

In our study through Gal., we’ve been learning about the importance of the New Creation. Every believer in jc is called a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). This means: before g, we start brand new when we first believe. This is the basis of our justification.

However, we all go through seasons in which we don’t feel this “newness” in our faith. Sometimes our faith feels old and dirty, like laundry. In our sanctification, it doesn’t feel new. So we try to find ways to make ourselves feel new. One lesson that I’m clinging onto each day is this: whenever I sin or my dirty laundry is exposed, I trust that jc will always have a new beginning for me. His death afforded every new beginning with new clothes to put on. His resurrection afforded me the ability to learn from my sins and to move away from the sins that keep exposing themselves in my flesh. In knowing this, it makes sense that Paul would boast in the cross of jc (Gal. 6:14).

So even though there are going to be plenty of moments when my laundry will be exposed for people to see, the Word informs that their is a daily newness that comes with being g’s new creation in jc.