Airing Out The Laundry

Recently I was given the opportunity to interview about a struggle that has been on going in my life for many years.  To watch the interview you can click on the title of this blog or go to SpielOn.com Episode 25.  Being a pastors wife and coming from a small town I always feel like I am being watched by everyone and that when I hang my laundry out to dry everyone sees it.  What happened to privacy fences in the back yard?  This being honest about struggles and being human just sucks at times like this.  I much prefer my pastors wife face with make up and a cute scarf with ridiculously huge earrings and adorable shoes that kill your feet.  The killing your feet part is nothing compared to being vulnerable and opening your life up for others to really see.  The truth is, those little half a sock things that you wear with heels to keep your feet from hurting so much get dirty and need to be washed just like everything else.  Mine included, but I can't stop there.  1 Corinthians is such a sweet reminder of this.  Really first Corinthians 6:11 is where I am getting at, but I will try to give you a little bit of where the Corinthian church was at first.  The Corinthian church was at no loss for sin, and these issues were made to be an idol before God.  Paul was continually reminding them that God was greater than what they could see.  In chapter six Paul was addressing the justice system and lawsuits which may seem a little odd, but I think what Paul was getting at was to settle disputes among each other in the church so the world would have this example.  I will start with verse nine

                   "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not    be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."

Then in verse 11 it gets rich and life changing for everyone! 

                   "And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

 Don't you just love that?!  As my husband says "We can't do what God does."  I am tainted by sin both of my own doing and by nature, but I have been washed.  My local church helps me see my failures in a loving way leading me to love more, and the more open with them I am the more God shows me His Grace in my life and changes me.  Which has also led me to believe the only way people will see there is hope in whatever they are facing is to show them where hope comes from.  I know, simple and yet so profound.  I have spent most of my life knowing the truths of God, but it hasn't been until more recently that my eyes have been opened to what a loving God He really is.  Over the last year I have been to the bottom and when I thought there wasn't any other way but up from there, the floor dropped out.  Each time I would try to climb back out and each time I would find myself further and further in.  Which is why I feel my husband is so true in that statement, "we can't do what God does."  If you have been washed, share it, so others might become clean.  Be the laundry hanging on the line.  If you are struggling and don't understand where the bottom really is, and where the breath of life begins, reach out.  I would be more than happy to share more.  There is hope, and just because it can't be seen or heard sometimes, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.