I’m not exactly sure how it came about, but for some reason, I LOVE hanging laundry on a clothesline outdoors. Maybe it’s a nostalgia thing… conjuring up memories of growing up in a rural setting, helping my mom hang the laundry outside on bright summer days and then racing to get it inside when an unexpected shower threatened to drench the almost-dry clothes.
And so recently, when the maintenance guy at the temporary place where we’re living restrung clotheslines that had been pulled down in last winter’s snow/ice storm, I was VERY happy.
Laundry flapping in a summer breeze… my “laundry therapy.” Bliss.
It’s funny how “little” things make a difference. Can be a morale booster. Can go by unnoticed by most people, but be of significance to others.
My laundry therapy has been instrumental in becoming more comfortable in this in-between time we’re currently in. Plus getting back into some good routines (like joining a gym, which enables me to swim regularly). Plus recognizing more fully how music is often a balm to my soul. A seemingly “little” thing, and yet something God often uses to connect my head and heart to the truth of His Word.
“Oceans” by Hillsong United (https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ75yIP1t0w&si=k4aDZs5HD8opgXWN) is one of those songs God has been using recently. It’s meaningful to me on several counts:
* Having grown up near the Atlantic Ocean, I’m a bona fide lover of all things related to the sea! Hence, the song name alone draws me in to wanting to hear and know more!
* “Oceans” is one of my good friend’s favorites– and so every time I hear it I’m transported back to when our paths first crossed in Thailand — and how our friendship continues to grow and deepen now that we’re both on the same continent.
* The words resonate with my soul.
You call me out upon the waters
The great unknown where feet may fail
And there I find You in the mystery
In oceans deep my faith will standChorus: And I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours, You are mineYour grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You’ve never failed and You won’t start nowSpirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Saviour
Yes, God has called my husband and me to a “great unknown,” a place where our “feet sometimes may fail.” And yet IN that mystery, IN the depths of the unknown our “faith will stand.” Why??? How???
Not because we have some extraordinary faith… but because of WHO our faith is in. Because we’re endeavoring to keep our eyes fixed above the waves, above the challenges and uncertainties, above what’s comfortable and familiar.
We’re choosing — at least on our good days! — to call upon God. To trust in HIM wholeheartedly, to try not to figure everything out with our own understanding, to acknowledge HIM in all our ways. In all we seek to do. In all the decisions we need to make.
We’re learning to “rest in His embrace.” Because we’re His. We’re His children, and He’s our loving Father.
Yes, we’re learning. Yes, we have good days and hard ones. Discouraging days when one or the other of us loses perspective. Frustrating days when we get tired of the holding pattern we’re in.
And yet we’re asking God to “lead us where our trust knows no borders.” Where our trust is refined and doesn’t have any “what if’s” or “but’s” or “why’s” attached. We want our faith to grow stronger… and we know that that happens “in the presence of our Saviour.”
… and that our faith grows one step at a time. One choice at a time.
So we do not lose heart…. for this light and momentary [challenge] is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look NOT TO THINGS THAT ARE SEEN BUT TO THE THINGS THAT ARE UNSEEN. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
– 2 Corinthians 4: 16-18
Back to my “laundry therapy…”
I’ve never “seen” the breeze that causes my laundry to dance on the clothesline. And yet the gentle flapping of laundry in the wind transforms wet clothing to dry.
Trusting in something unseen. Something that yields results. Something that is completely independent from my efforts. Something totally out of my control.
Something accomplished by my Heavenly Father.
And so that — remembering to trust in God, remembering that “His sovereign hand will be my guide,” remembering that “You [God] have never failed and You won’t start now” — is how I’m wanting to live during this in-between time. And that is how I’ll have joy in the journey of this thing called “Life!”
Joy in the Journey 