Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Monday October 27, 2008

I recall a time back when Dinosaurs still roamed the earth that Monday was wash day, and what a day. During some of these washings if the washer failed to start (gasoline) mom would set a wash tub over a small fire and when the water was warm, clothes were placed in the water, a huge bar of lye soap applied via a wash board (looked like my abs) and the joyous Monday activity was in full swing. And then there was a hand driven wringer to squeeze the water out. Later when we moved up in the world and were one of a few families with electric washers and wringers, I learned by firsthand observation where a saying featuring wringers and the female physique came into the language. Not a pretty sight or sound.

And then Fats Domino brought the truth of Blue Monday to our consciousness with his song about the misery of the day. There were hangovers for the men and the washboard for women, both of which were a form of Torquemada Inquisition like recreation that contributed to the joy of Monday. To this day I attempt to buy a car that was assembled Tuesday through Thursday.

By now you are screaming, "What is the spiritual principle in all of this?"

Simple, no matter the wonder and benefit of modern engines and technology, the tendency to inner rage at the hand life has dealt to us is still a very negative part of the existence of what is called modern man. Men, for the most part still lead unchallenged lives, and women, even though they spout the joys of liberation, are still for the most part regarded as chattels that graze at the will of the man/tyrant who claims ownership via a ring.

The point is that no matter the circumstance, we, men and women are mostly out of sync with our makeup, out of sorts with our creator, and the result is a mind and heart numbing sense of futility, an inner knowing that we were and are made for a more noble existence. We live like Prairie Dogs, when our original configuration demands flight with Eagles. Thoreau understood this when he wrote, "Most men live lives of quiet desperation."

The pent up rage associated with the sense of desperation is the primary culprit in all sorts of maladies, such as depression, anxiety, a sense of purposelessness ad infinitum.

In the Gospel of John 10:10 in part Jesus said,

"I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly."

In this partial verse Christ is teaching the hearers who lived a very brutal life one of the great secrets, most lived in extreme poverty and oppression, yet He taught them that deliverance was not necessarily a new washer, but that His truth abiding in the human spirit would transcend the grinding boredom of that era. His truth, when fully received would give them the power to see beyond the pain of Monday, to see the purpose, however small, their work played in the betterment of the whole.

When I was young I asked a man who was in our church, The Baptist Bible Church of Elkton, "How do you stand the monotony of working for General Motors on the assembly line?" I will always remember his answer, "Larry, I do not work for General Motors. I work for Jesus, and the lightning of the load my wife carries and for the Christian and overall welfare of the children. The drudgery I endure, I do it for God's glory, after all He endured the cross for me."

Shades of the Protestant Work Ethic?

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2008 Use with credit and caution.

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