Sunday, November 12, 2017

God Is In The Laundry

Many churches in the Indianapolis area support a homeless ministry by hosting fourteen homeless people in their church building for a week. Family Promise, is a nationwide organization that helps families in practical ways, starting with providing temporary housing. The families (adults and children) spend the day at the downtown office, where volunteers and staff help them find permanent housing and jobs. The families return to the host church close to 6:00 p.m., 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 after dinner. The church provides towels and bedding for the guests. One Sunday after the guests left, I volunteered to take a couple of bags of laundry home.

Finding The Bags Of Laundry

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

God's Presence

I received with gratitude God's unexpected appearance doing an ordinary task. I took the bags home, dumping the towels, sheets and mattress covers on the floor, starting 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 asked myself, "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 can be to their emotional development and security.

The complexity of the physical, social, and psychological toil homelessness can bring filled my heart with prayer and compassion for these nameless people. I could touch them 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.

A Benedictine Experience

While I folded the stacks of bedding, I was reminded of 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 at the abbey was completed prayerfully and with love. Her last responsibility before leaving was to change the linens on the bed she used

She started by tugging at the sheet corners, trying to hurry along. Then she remembered how the nuns "put love into the cheese, the flowers, and the 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 feeling shy, uncertain, expectant? I slow down and smooth the pillows gently, tenderly, as Mother Margaret Georgina had suggested handling the cheese. The material remembers." (page 242)

I have the 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 pad. The material will remember and in a way directed by God will be conveyed to the next adult or child.

Thoughts for Reflection

1. Everyday tasks like washing, folding sheets, making a bed, cooking dinner can seem mundane, but when done with love and an awareness of God's presence can add meaning and blessing to others as well as yourself.

Here are a few suggestions of short prayers to say while you are completing laundry or cooking:

.God I pray your blessing on the person who will sleep under these sheets/use these towels/wear these clothes.  Come to them and give them what they need.

Thank you, God for this food I am preparing. Let it strengthen the bodies of those who will enjoy it, so they may be able to complete their work, learn in school and relax at the end of the day. I pray for those who do not have regular meals that agencies and programs may provide for their needs.



1 comment:

  1. You do have a Brother Lawrence approach to so many tasks, and a love for others.

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