Pulling the Weeds
What a beautiful day for washing the Toddler dressing up clothes!
Laundry is not, as you can imagine, my favourite job, although with only two children living at home now, and Vinod away, it is a fraction of the job it used to be. But it is a job that is never done. The washing basket is never empty. Even so, as I pegged out the dressing up outfits today I found myself singing. It was an old song from my days at boarding school, when I was a keen Girl Crusader.
‘Pulling the weeds, Lord, pulling the weeds, living for your glory, pulling the weeds.’
Everything we do in our days can be lived to God’s glory - from the wildly exciting to the really mundane, like the laundry. I remember years ago my younger sister complaining of being bored during the long school holidays. My mother, who had six children and was used to the hard grind of feeding, washing, mending, pulling the weeds and feeding again, said to her, “Darling, life is boring and the sooner you accept that the easier you will find it! Yes, there are wonderful times and exciting times and challenging times in life but the day to day tasks, that get you through, are mundane and boring and you just have to get on with it.” This struck me as harsh at the time, but having had four children myself, pegging another lot of washing to the line, I now understand where she was coming from that day.
However, there is another way of looking at the mundane. Rather than seeing life as boring, especially now, when we are in isolation in our homes and there are no trips, reunions or holidays on the near horizon, we can offer up our lives in worship to the God who made us. We can live each day to His glory. He is faithful in providing for us and we can be faithful in living for him. We can train ourselves to see the value in each task that we do. It may be something exciting and adventurous, but more likely in these times it will be the usual daily tasks that need doing or, maybe for some, just getting through each day. Whatever we are doing we can live our days giving praise for the small blessings that we have like water, food, a roof over our heads, a phone call, the sunshine, the rain, children’s laughter - whether it be our own children or the children out in nearby gardens.
“Washing the dishes, Lord, washing the dishes, living for your glory, washing the dishes” - again, and again!
Like these jobs, which are relentless, so our worship should be relentless, continuous, never stopping. We can worship through everything that we do. We can be faithful in our praise to God, as He is faithful to us. “I will praise the Lord at all times; His praise will always be on my lips.” Psalm 34:1
By listening and being aware of God in our everyday, we begin to see Him in all that is around us. Our daily life, at present, has been interrupted. We are not living in ‘normal’ times.’ Stuck at home much of our life in isolation is routine/mundane, doing jobs that need to be done. And yet, as Bonhoeffer said, “Interruption is God’s invitation. God is inviting us to see him all around us, in the lives of others, in our conversations, in our serving those in need. Interruption is not simply a matter of our heart developing patience; it’s about experiencing true life.”
We need to use this time, this interruption, to listen to God and see what He is doing. We need to give Him every part of our lives. We need to pray as He leads us to pray. We need to pray for those who are sick and those who are caring for them. We need to pray for all those who have to work on through this crisis, whose days, facing the realities and challenges of this crisis, are far from mundane. If we listen and pray through the routine, if worship becomes an integral part of our daily rhythm, then we will certainly have hours to do it.
“I will offer up my life in spirit and truth
Pouring out the oil of love, as my worship to you
In surrender I must give my every part
Lord, receive this sacrifice of a broken heart.” Matt Redman
Kate Diwakar
Toddler Pastor