Thursday, October 23, 2014

Hanging

It was an extra early morning.

As my husband walked out the door, he cautioned, "Don't let the closet scare you. Your clothes rack fell."

Oh, great, I think to myself. Really? What else can go wrong?

"Thanks for letting me know." I closed the garage door behind him.

As I walked into the closet, it boasted disaster. And four days later, my clothes still remained sprawled out on the floor. Still attached to hangers.

On his way home, my husband called to say that he had stopped at Lowe's to purchase items to repair the closet rack.

The evening went as usual. Dinner. Walks. Property Brothers. Good movie.

Near bedtime, I said, "We aren't going to fix the closet tonight, are we? I'm so tired." Please say no.

"Yes! It won't take long."

Trudging back to the bedroom closet, I noticed he was raring to go. Drill. Screws. He said, "This rack was held up by mere plastic and one screw. We'll go through and replace them all." You sure are enthusiastic. I'm not.

But upon investigation, I noticed that one shelf was the only one with plastic ... the rest were strong and stable, metal holders. I showed my husband. "How odd," I said.

The shelf was fixed. Metal holders. Three screws. My clothes won't fall now.

The clothes that I choose to return.


"I'm not putting these clothes on the rack just yet. By the looks of it, I've got some weeding out to do." I scolded myself.

Sometimes areas in our lives need weeding out. There are areas that need hanging up.

My grandmother hanging clothes on the line to dry reeled through my mind. If the weight was too heavy for the clothespin, the fabric would fall. She'd have to brush off the debris. Oh, how I wish I had a picture of her hanging out clothes. Priceless.




The breakdown in our lives often reveals that some area needs to be turned over to God for security and strength. Entirely.

We place too much weight on ourselves to find that we can't maintain enduring strength alone. We need help.

Sometimes we have to change the angle of our lens to realize that something is wrong. To see the truth. The color is different. This is too much.

When everything seems to fall apart and it seems we are continually brushing off our knees, the hope remains that we are still attached to the One.

It's really a quick fix. We don't even need an early start. And God already paid the price.

Oh yes, Jesus came down to offer repair.

When the fabric of our lives seems to fall apart, there is One who enables us to hang in there.

The One found hanging on a cross.


6 comments:

  1. Sometimes those nasty little mishaps shine a spotlight on areas we need to weed. We may never have noticed otherwise. And sometimes, like weeding out a closet, we rediscover little gems we'd forgotten about. Or like yesterday, when I cleaned up around one of our computers and found an unfilled order from three weeks ago. Oops.

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    1. Oh, Terri ... yes, we discover little gems! I love that!

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  2. I'm finding lately that it seems to be God, adding more weight, and when I fall, He says, "GET UP!"

    "NOW!!!"

    I'm free to stay on my knees, and eventually, He'll help me. But He seems to want this all to count for something, and I don't want to disappoint Him.

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    1. Yes, Andrew ... it does seem that He adds more weight to us, doesn't it. But we can count on Him to help us up ... if He's the one adding the weight! I suppose!! But for someone who is the same today, tomorrow, and forever, He is predictably unpredictable! :)

      You won't disappoint Him. I'm confident of that.

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  3. Shelli, I felt a laundry bag of burdens fall off my shoulders as I read this. You've reminded me that I'm not supposed to carry the weight of worry for one single step. God's got it all figured out already, and I'm supposed to trust and obey one day at a time.

    I smiled to see that I'm not the only woman whose clothes rack has collapsed. And I know the frustration of having a line of laundry hit the ground too. ;) I love your inspirational writing.

    Blessings ~ Wendy ❀

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    1. Wendy!! Thank you for coming by! Lately, it feels like one thing is collapsing after another. My sink is leaking ... my daughter's toilet is running! We can't keep up. But ... God's got it all ... and like you said, we just need to trust and obey one day at a time.

      Knowing we can trust God is the easy part ... truly trusting Him is the challenge. Let's do it! :)

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Blessed by you, Shelli