Thursday, July 24, 2014

God Is In The Laundry

Many churches in the Indianapolis area support a homeless ministry by housing adults and children in their church building for a week.  Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN) is a nationwide organization that helps families in practical ways, starting with providing a place to stay.  The families spend the day downtown at the IHN office where volunteers and staff help them find permanent housing and jobs.  The families return to the host church close to 6:00 pm, where they have dinner, play games, and sleep in Sunday school rooms converted to bedrooms.

Church members cook meals, drive the guests to and from the church, and plan activities for the children.  The church provides towels and bedding which are stored in a large closet in the basement. When the families ended their stay on Sunday, July 13, I volunteered to take two bags of laundry home.

I went downstairs to get my bags before church.  I chose two, both of which were bulging in asymmetrical ways.  Trying to keep my balance while carrying these bundles up the stairs was interesting as I had to shift my position to keep them from toppling over my head and pushing me downstairs.  However, the minute I picked up one of the plastic bags, and held it to my chest, my heart was filled with God's presence.

I received with gratitude God's un expected appearance doing an ordinary task.  I took the bags home, dumping the towels, sheets and mattress covers on the floor, and started what would end up being six loads of laundry.  When I loaded the washer, I wondered who had used the towel or sheet I held. I wondered what circumstances led them to become homeless.  I thought about the children who slept on the sheets, knowing how disruptive moving every seven days to another church must be to their emotional development and security.

Constantly seeing new people at each church might impair healthy attachment and sense of trust.  Stability adults and children need to function effectively can be missing with homeless people.  The complexity of the physical, social and psychological toil homelessness can bring filled my heart with prayer and compassion for these nameless individuals.  I could touch the through the remnants of their stay and offer prayer as they moved on to another church.

When I folded the clean and dry sheets, towels and mattress pads, I prayed for the person who will use each of them in the future.  I prayed that he or she would feel God close during this time of disruption and crisis.  I prayed for a smooth transition from homelessness to home.

While I folded the stacks of bedding, I recalled an article I read in the March 2004 issue of Oprah's
"O" magazine.  The author, Sara Davidson, describes her experience at a Benedictine abbey in Bethlehem, Connecticut.  She was able to participate in worship services and eat with the sisters.  She learned all work was completed prayerfully and with love.  Her last responsibility before leaving was to change the bed linens.

She started by tugging at the sheet corners, trying to hurry along. Then she remembered how the nuns "put love into the cheese, tending the flowers, and fruit they grow, the animals they care for, the shawls they weave and the honey they make.  Why not put love into the linens for the next guest who arrives feely shy, uncertain, expectant?  I slowed down and smoothed the pillows gently, tenderly, as Mother Margaret Georgina had suggested handling the cheese.   'The material remembers', she told us" (page 242).

I have assurance that the material for the next person will hold the love and prayer I put into washing and folding each towel, sheet, and mattress pads.  The material will remember and in a way directed by God, will be conveyed to the next adult or child.

How can you bring prayer and love to ordinary tasks?

1 comment:

  1. "The material remembers," Ms. Davidson included in that "O" article, as she quoted Mother Margaret Georgina. Hm. So interesting, how you have folded love and prayers and hope into that laundry. At the very least, the families will rest on the fresh, clean bedding. I love the smell of fresh sheets and would be so grateful so settle between them. You find the richest experiences in the simplest places and actions.

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