![\"\"](\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/20210811_095844-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>\nYou know what life is like?\u00a0 Life is like going into your laundry room and hearing a suspicious \u201cker-chunk, ker-CHUNK\u201d coming from your clothes dryer.\u00a0 Not being your first rodeo, you stop that thing right away and investigate.\u00a0 Congratulations!\u00a0 There is an ORANGE CRAYON in your dryer! <\/p>\n
Proud of your ability to avert disaster and do all things well, you shut the dryer door and try again.\u00a0 But wait:\u00a0 \u201cKer-chunk, ker CHUNK!\u201d\u00a0 Now you know exactly what to do.\u00a0 You open the door, and, sure enough, ANOTHER CRAYON!\u00a0 You repeat this process over\u2026and over\u2026until you have retrieved a total of SEVEN crayons from a fate of waxy pulverization in your fresh towels.<\/p>\n
But wait, again: because you refuse to be outwitted by a clothes dryer (or the toddler who put the crayons in the wash), you take out each bad boy in that whole load of laundry, and check for MORE crayons.\u00a0 Yes, even the pockets of your husband\u2019s bedraggled cargo pants.\u00a0 Upon completing your search, you are so pleased that you actually go and tell<\/em> people about how you saved your laundry from a disastrous seven-crayon disaster.<\/p>\n Only, there\u2019s one problem.\u00a0 There weren\u2019t seven crayons in your laundry.\u00a0 There were eight.<\/p>\n It\u2019s immensely challenging, in the midst of the many hurts and frustrations of this life, to keep sight of how God views this world of the bowed down, the captive, the hungry, and the oppressed.\u00a0 The God of Jacob raises up those who are bowed down\u2026sets the captive free\u2026the God of Jacob keeps faith forever<\/em>.\u00a0 \u201cForever\u201d certainly takes a lot more foresight (and hindsight) than I have.\u00a0 Look at me, I couldn\u2019t even foresee how there\u2019d be one more Crayola in my dryer.<\/p>\n God calls us to trust, even if we have to wipe smears of melted pink plastic out of our clothes dryer.\u00a0 For, unlike us in our bowed-down pride, God does all things well.<\/p>\n In the midst of these things that crowd out the sounds of God\u2019s love\u2014be they pin pricks of pink crayons or far more significant crises\u2014God calls us to be strong, and fear not.\u00a0 Christ is ready for us\u2014ready for us to see, to sing, and to circumvent the next disaster which befalls our laundry (which, by the way, was an exploded disposable diaper).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the midst of these things that crowd out the sounds of God\u2019s love\u2014Christ is ready for us\u2014ready for us to see, to sing, and to circumvent the next disaster which befalls our laundry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":57395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3119,17],"tags":[3016,3515,3057],"class_list":["post-57394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-plaza-new-ws","category-liturgical-spirituality","tag-children","tag-liturgical-life","tag-liturgical-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Toddler-in-Dryer-300x194.jpg\")
Why, oh why does life treat us like this?\u00a0 Why do we feel as if we\u2019ve finally escaped some oppressive force, and yet now we have just one more thing happen?\u00a0 One more flat tire?\u00a0 One more round of destructive weather?\u00a0 One more international crisis?\u00a0 One more iteration of Covid?<\/p>\n![\"Jesus's](\"https:\/\/www.crossroadsinitiative.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/deaf-man-healed-facebook.jpg\")
Life in the Living God demands a severe amount of trust.\u00a0 Of hope.\u00a0 Of patience.\u00a0 Of turning our hearts and minds to something we can\u2019t see or hear.\u00a0 It is the Living God who opens our senses to what is standing before us:\u00a0 Ephphatha!<\/em>\u2014be opened (cf. Mark 7:31-37).<\/p>\n