Wrinkle Releaser

I don’t believe in laundry baskets.

Now, let me clarify:  I believe in laundry baskets if they are used to put your dirty clothes in to transfer them to the washer, but I don’t believe in taking my laundry out of the dryer, putting it into a basket and then letting the clothes sit there on top of each other getting wrinkly.  I can be a big procrastinator and if I let myself use laundry baskets for my fresh, clean, out-of-the-dryer clothes, they no longer end up being fresh and clean but forgotten and creased.  So…I make myself fold my laundry right out of the dryer because I am sort of anal about stuff like this.  I make myself do a lot of things in my real life.  Which is why I am way more fun on vacation because vacation is not my real life.  But, as a clarifier, I still like you if you use laundry baskets to put your clean clothes in—my kids do it all the time since they do their own laundry and don’t care about their appearances. So keep doing it at your own house—just not at mine.

I tell you all of this as a setting for my story which follows:

The other day I was pretty busy and I didn’t really have the time to fold the clean clothes in my dryer, but I needed to use the washer for another load—and heaven forbid that I use a laundry basket--so I stuffed the wet clothes into the dryer that was already full of dry clothes.  As I was doing this, I felt like it was a big secret and all, and that no one would ever know that two full loads were tumbling round and round in my dryer. I would just fold them both when the second load dried—because I love folding hundreds of clothing items at once—especially socks.

Well, what do you know?  When that massive load of secret laundry finally dried, EVERYTHING in the dryer was wrinkled.  EVERYTHING.

Why did this happen?  Not because I used a laundry basket and piled everything on top of each other and left it to wrinkle.  No, this happened because I tried to sidestep the guidelines I have set for myself regarding laundry.  I didn’t take the time to fold the single dry load.  I didn’t use a laundry basket because I think laundry baskets make me weak.  I put too many clothes in the dryer.  I thought I could sidestep my guidelines and still get the same successful result.  I was wrong.  And now I have lots of laundry that looks like my kids washed it.

Now, I realize that this is a ridiculous story but at the same time I think I can learn about God from it.  He sets guidelines for me on the way I should think and act and live my life.  Sometimes when I am busy or stressed or just apathetic, I try to go around these “laws”.  Sometimes I just ignore them because they don’t seem to make sense—like my laundry basket ban. But then I find out that my “secret” way wasn’t really all that successful and I end up wishing I had just done it the way God said to do it.

God’s ways are always the best, you know.  And we are always unwise when we think we know better than Him.  We don’t.  And we can’t.

Things will always turn out wrinkly if we attempt them on our own. Even if we think we’re being sneaky.

 

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Hebrews 4:13