Life Through the Lens: Trust the dirty clothes basket

This post was contributed by Kevin Schrapel.

How would you feel about being the dirty clothes basket?

There you stand, in the designated space between the toilet and the shower screen.

Your sole purpose is to receive all the dirty clothes cast off by all who come along and decide, “if I chuck it in there, it will come back to me clean”.

Now check what Jesus says in John 15:3: “you have been made clean already by the teaching I have given you”.

And what is that teaching?

Simply this: “But if we confess our sins to God, he will keep his promise and do what is right: he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all our wrongdoing” (1 John 1:9).

Jesus takes all the dirtied, soiled and smelly stuff of our lives and cleans it up.

First, he cleans; that’s why he died on that cross.

It doesn’t matter what needs cleaning.

It might be something you have done which stains your life: words, thoughts, actions, wrecked relationships.

There are so many stains which can make us think, “I’m so unlovable; how could anyone care, especially God?”

But Jesus takes it all on board and cleans it away just like he has promised.

Yet the truly amazing thing is, Jesus doesn’t stop just with the cleaning.

If you let him, Jesus also wants to patch and mend and heal any hurts or scars.

He doesn’t just patch torn lives, Jesus actually makes lives like new.

It is true, as many with grubby, worn-out lives have found.

You throw your soiled and stained clothes into the laundry basket, fully expecting that once they have been through the washer, they will be clean.

Hand your life over to Jesus, point to the parts that need cleaning up and trust that he can and will do it – no charge!

God bless and enjoy a great week.