Unseen (Lessons From the Laundry)

If you're just joining us now, we're talking about the frustration of repetitive housework and how to use it to our hope and joy. If you haven't already read them, I suggest you start with the intro, then Part 1 and Part 2. Otherwise, here's reminder #3 from the laundry pile:

Housework reminds me that even very temporary things can have yet-unseen permanent results.

Why do I go on doing the housework, even though it seems so futile? Can you imagine what life would be like for my family if I just decided to quit--no more laundry, no more dishes, never iron another shirt again, and please don't clean that toilet! Sounds heavenly! Except that it would be a disaster. My children would have to wander around in filthy clothes, eating scraps from the garbage on fly-infested plates, while my husband and I tripped our way through the mass of toys, praying we didn't get one of those evil spear-headed Legos underfoot. Keeping the house tidy and well-organized serves my family in numerous ways that are admittedly often unnoticed and taken for granted, but who would want to live in a world without them? In the same way, many of the little things that we do in life, even those that go unnoticed and seem to us to have no visible results, can have a great impact on the lives of others around us, and much of this impact may be of more eternal value than we know. How we serve in the church when nobody sees us, prayers offered on behalf of those we'll never meet on this earth, our tone of voice when we see our 2-year-old dump the box of blocks all over the newly-vacuumed playroom floor... these things have impacts that we're often not aware of. Faithful service is not usually glamourous. Sometimes it involves scrubbing toilets and picking up trash--literally or figuratively. But the unseen effect it has on those around us (and on our own hearts) is well-worth the effort. "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)