Encouragement

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I readied my mountain of ironing, eager to get this part of my morning chores out of the way. Somehow, the laundry and ironing seemed symbolic today for my life. There were lots of “wrinkles” lately in what used to be smooth spots of my life. Life was sort of twisted up for a very long time. But now, it was time for things to be smoothed out. I grabbed the first garment and began ironing away. I ironed almost on auto-pilot, lost in thought. Looking down, I realized that the shirt was just as wrinkled as when I began. I cautiously felt the face plate of the iron – no heat. I checked the plug: plugged in, no frayed wires. Hmmmmm. A mystery.

My mind went back to the morning reading that had captured my attention:

“Not that I have already obtained all this (becoming like Christ), or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (Philippians 3:12)

“OK, Lord, I will persevere” I muttered, trying again to iron. Nothing. No heat.

“OK, Lord, I am here, I am listening. I know you are smoothing out the wrinkles in my life, conforming me to your image, just as this shirt needs to be “conformed” to the image of what it was intended to look like – and the rest of the ironing that I need to do today. What? Do you want me to lay hands on the iron, to speak healing to it? What is it you want me to do?”

Silence….

Then, the still small voice came and spoke to my heart: ..... "Press “On”."

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