I am doing 3 loads of laundry today.
Yesterday I did one load of laundry.
Tomorrow I’ll probably do another load of laundry.
And so it goes.
Is this what life is about?
80%, or even 90% of what I do is repetitive. What I accomplished today will have to be done again tomorrow. It doesn’t seem like I am getting ahead. Is maintaining life all there is to life?
I heard it said that life is a tapestry. We live our lives looking at the back of the tapestry where the knots and the loose ends do not look like anything. But when you look at the front, every stitch and every knot contributed to the beautifully woven complete picture.
It seems to me that life must be more than the sum of its parts.
I am thinking about this because I am feeling a bit discouraged today. Why should I continue doing certain things? What is the point? Does it make any difference? It is a fact that life will go on without me, so why should I bother?
As I think about the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, I saw it in a way I never thought of before.
Just as the talents in the parable were given to the servants and did not belong to them, so my life is not my own.
Is my life a 5-talent life, or a 10-talent life? That is not for me to decide.
I came to the realization that it is not for me to judge the significance of my life.
My responsibility is to choose to do the right thing whenever it is within my control.
Whenever possible, I am to be obedient to God in everything he’s given me – do my best at work, do my best in getting the laundry done, do my best in raising my children and taking care of my husband. Doing laundry is all a part of being faithful with what’s been given me to do.
Then I imagine if I don’t do the laundry….not a pretty sight…or smell.
Perhaps the routine maintenance is a very vital part of life afterall…