Sort of

“You shall have no other gods before me.”  Ex 20:3

 

Are you a sorter, placer, or bin user?  I’m a sorter. Actually, to be more specific—a master bedroom, floor-using, pile-making, sorter. I’m curious what you are.

 

 

This past Monday was laundry day.  And not just regular laundry day, but the necessary kind of laundry day where the mass had been pushed down so many times to make room for more, air gaps no longer existed between the clothes.   Do you know this type?   The type of laundry day that was an absolute must because the wall next to where the clothes hamper sits, actually supported the mountain of soiled fabrics that went well above the top of the hamper. Yes, that kind of day.   A day that found me in the bedroom sorting clothes, or should I say, making small mounds of dirty, used, stinky clothes.    Have you been there?   If you have, you know the drill; it’s all about sorting.
Whites, colors, darks, and towels—at least that’s the way I do it.  And in our household, the darks make the largest load, the colors move into a close second and the whites complete the package, albeit the smallest.

 

 

 

And it is there, on Monday morning sorting laundry, that I found God waiting for me.

 

 

We all do it.  It is necessary to get through life.  It’s survival.  We sort and make piles of the stuff in our lives.  We gather and place and move about the priorities that make up our very different lives.  Our piles are different, but none-the-less, we all have them. Family, friends, work, school, sports, fitness—the list is endless yet they make up the piles in our lives.   The piles are absolutely essential.

 

Yet we have to ask ourselves, which pile is the biggest?  Which pile garners the most attention?  Which mound causes us more focus?

 

The loads of laundry lying on our bedroom floor mirror my life.  The biggest mound is the biggest need.  The largest pile is the priority.  That is where I will start the task for the day.  Yet, off to the side will be the last load—the smaller pile of “whites.”  The pile, that if it isn’t big enough at the time, will be scooped up and placed back into the hamper to wait for more similars, to make a full load.

 

Everyone puts God into a pile that makes up the priorities of their life. But which pile is it?

 

I would like to think that I have made God the priority and the attention.  At least most of the time.

 

But there have also been those times when the need wasn’t there.  When God took a backseat to my other gods.  There were those times when I gathered up my thoughts of Jesus and conveniently placed him back in the bin for another day.  The other piles in my life took on the priority and He could wait.  The other gods in my life became my focus.   Oh, the other gods didn’t take on a form of some celestial being; they simply took on the form of a higher priority.  Their forms were in the makeup of husband, work, house, bank accounts, cars, kids, and so on.  They came first.  They were put above the One who should have been at the top.

 

The very first Commandment that our God sent down from the heavens to His people is pretty straightforward…“have no other gods before me.” Jesus made reference to the first commandment on more than one occasion. At one point, telling others to “seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

 

It’s not the fact we have piles and priorities…it’s the placement of importance on those piles.  Yet the One who gives us all the other things sometimes doesn’t even make it to the top.   Do we start our day in prayer?  Do we seek to add devotionals in our lives?  Do we purposely set out to serve Him through learning His Word?

 

Please don’t get me wrong, this is not a “guilting” of your life.  It is not meant to make us feel one more ounce of pressure for something we are not doing.  It was on Monday, and still is this morning, simply a reminder that when I/you sort out the items in our lives are we putting God in the priority pile?  I think that is a question we need to keep asking ourselves.  As I wrote a few lines above, there is a promise that when we do, the important things in life will be given unto us.   I like that promise!

 

 HOPE IN MOTION:

1.  Is laundry on your list to do in the very near future?  If it is, how about thinking of this post as you sort the clothes.  Talk to God and ask Him for clarity on where your priorities are at.  Do they need adjusting?  Sorting laundry can be a great time to pray.
2. Read Matt 4:10, and 6:31-33.  Can you see how Jesus took the First Commandment and expounded on it?
3. How about starting small this week, and purposely starting each day with a prayer.  Nothing lengthy, nothing elaborate, but a private moment between you and your Father to be connected.