Too Many Clothes

The rail in my wardrobe has broken.

 

I heard an unidentifiable crash a few evenings ago and now have a clothes rail which is hanging at an acute angle.  I have tried to screw it back in place, but I think I need some heavy duty toolmanship to properly sort the problem.

 

Of course, it would be easy to assume I have too many clothes and therefore ought to sort through them and decrease my wardrobe.

 

However, I hope instead to find someone with an electric drill who can help to re-establish the rail and restore harmony to my wardrobe.

 

Sometimes in life, I have too much in my wardrobe, too.  I am trying to carry too many things, or deal with too many things, and the 'rails' bend and break from the strain.

 

But Jesus tells us that we don't need to carry a heavy load.  In fact, if we follow Him, we have an easy load to bear:

"Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

 

[Matthew 11:28-30 NLT] 

 

And in another translation,

 

"I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

 

[Matthew 11:30 MSG]

 

Often, we try to cram too much into our 'wardrobes'.  We hold onto things that no longer fit or suit us.  We can't bear to part with our old outfits.  And we do it because it feels safe and comfortable.  We would rather have too much and feel secure, than have an empty wardrobe and wonder who we are.

 

But we weren't made to carry a heavy burden.  We were made for a light load.  And when we try to carry or hold too much, we end up with broken rails.

 

I want to learn to accept Jesus' words and live freely and lightly in a spiritual sense.  But I think I'll keep the clothes.

 

 

 

 

The Wardrobe Of Our Thoughts

I bought the film 'Eat, Pray, Love' the other day and am just rewatching it this evening.

 

It's about a woman who is dissatisfied with her life in New York and decides to travel to Italy, India and Bali to find herself again.

 

At one point, when she is on a spiritual retreat in India, a man she has sort of befriended tells her she has to start choosing what thoughts to 'put on' in the same way that she chooses what clothes to wear.

 

I don't spend very long choosing what to wear in the mornings.  The formula is simple: always work from the feet up.  Is it raining or freezing?  Yes - boots and something that will go with boots.  No - heels (or sandals in the summer) and something that will go with heels.

 

But when it comes to our thoughts, too easily we let ourselves think things without thinking about them - we think without thinking.

 

We throw on any old thoughts, regardless of whether they are flattering or 'our size' or if they suit us.  We put our thoughts on without wondering if they are true.

 

I have recently challenged myself to stop using the word 'should' in my own thoughts and conversations with myself.  'Should' makes me feel as though I am obliged to do something and I don't measure up.  'Should' suggests I fall short.  'Should' makes me feel that there is only one right and perfect way of doing things.

 

As someone who is trying to break free from the hold of perfectionism and the feeling that there is always only one right way of doing something, eliminating 'Should' has been a big help.

 

Now, I find myself thinking, "I could have done that" or "I would like to do this".

 

I have started to rethink my thinking.

 

The Bible talks about taking control over our thoughts and rethinking our thinking:

"The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.  On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

 

[2 Corinthians 10:1-6 NIV]
 

We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

If my thoughts - about myself and other people - don't measure up or match what Christ thinks, I need to change them, to make them line up with what God says. 

I need to rethink my thinking. 

 

With and Within

I've just had one of those washing machine disasters you always dread.

 

I put a load on earlier this evening and have just taken it out.  It was mostly pale clothes, but I had a couple of scarves that needed freshening up, so I popped those in too.  One of them was pale blue.

 

Now everything is pale blue.

 

I know what you're thinking.  It was a silly mistake, I just wasn't thinking as I put it all in earlier.

 

I'm amazed by how much of my washing has been affected and by how everything has been permeated by a subtle hint of blue.  But what is most amazing is that the scarf itself is still a beautiful dusty blue.  It doesn't seem to have changed or faded at all.

 

It has changed everything else, but hasn't changed itself.

 

I have been thinking about the word 'Immanuel' over the last day or two - 'God with us'.  I always thought that this name referred to the idea of God coming to be with us through Jesus.

 

But that's something that happened in the past and doesn't always seem to relate directly to me.  And 'us' is very vague and very big.  It is an all-encompassing word.

 

Whilst the Bible makes it clear that Jesus came and died for the whole world, sometimes I want to know that He came just for me too.

 

I was reflecting on this earlier and I think that rather than seeing Immanuel as meaning God with us, it is more helpful to see it as meaning God with me.  Or even, God within me.

 

Paul writes,

 "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

[Colossians 1:27 NIV]

  

In the same way that my blue scarf has permeated and coloured all of my other clothes, a relationship with God through Jesus colours all of our lives as well.  Every aspect is influenced and affected as His love flows into our lives and changes them.  And as we receive His love, we become more like Him.

 

In his song 'Everything', Tim Hughes sings -

 

      "God in my living, there in my breathing

      God in my waking, God in my sleeping

      God in my resting, there in my working

      God in my thinking, God in my speaking

      Be my everything, be my everything

      Be my everything, be my everything
 

      God in my hoping, there in my dreaming

      God in my watching, God in my waiting

      God in my laughing, there in my weeping

      God in my hurting, God in my healing

      Be my everything, be my everything

      Be my everything, be my everything."

My clothes are now evidence of the presence of my blue scarf in the washing machine - they are evidence of scarf with us, or scarf in us.  In the same way, as we grow in our relationship with God, our lives will become evidence of that incomprehensible truth: God with us.  God with me.  God within me.

 

Laundry

I'm one of those odd people (perhaps the only odd person?) who rather enjoys ironing.

I like how mindless and repetitive it is, and the fact that you can watch TV whilst you're doing it, or listen to music.  I love the smell of clean laundry wafting around the house.  And, most of all, I love the satisfying feeling as the creases disappear as you steam over them with the iron.

I don't, however, enjoy ironing anything made of linen.  It's not the ironing itself that I dislike, so much as the futility of it.  It seems an utterly pointless exercise, as the moment you start wearing linen, it it is creased again and needs ironing all over again.

I think life is a bit like ironing - or laundry - too: things get dirty and stained and creased and wrinkled and need cleaning up and smoothing out.  And in the same way that we wash and iron our clothes regularly, we need to 'wash' and smooth out our lives on a regular basis too.

We need to make them new again.

But we can't do this by ourselves.

David asked God to forgive him, wash him clean and make him new after he had slept with Bathsheba (someone else's wife):

"Generous in love - God, give grace!  Huge in mercy - wipe out my bad record.  Scrub away my guilt, soak out my sins in your laundry [...] Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean, scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life."

[Psalm 51:1-2, 7 MSG]

Although God is more than capable of answering this prayer, I think it's easy for us to forget that this is an ongoing process and that this is a prayer we will find ourselves uttering again and again.  Our lives get 'mucky' and we need forgiveness.  We need cleaning up over and over and over again. 

And so we ask God to 'wash' us and clean us up, to 'iron' us and smooth things out.  And we get mucky again.  And God washes us again.  And we get mucky again.  And God washes us again.  And we get mucky again.  And God washes us again.  And so it goes on. 

And God is always faithful and always ready to forgive us and pick us up and dust us off and send us out again, dressed in new, clean clothes.

"Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him."

[Colossians 3:10 NLT emphasis mine]