My family recently moved into a new home. And with a new home come a lot of new things. New furniture. New drive time to work. New challenges with an older home with more land. All sorts of new things, some we expected and some we didn’t see coming! New is sometimes challenging and sometimes rewarding all at the same time. One of the new things that happened in this new to us home was an unexpected new washer and dryer.
Ok so the backstory here is that our washer and dryer worked fine. They were about 7 years old but still functioned well enough. They washed clothing and dried them sufficiently. The washer wasn’t something my wife ever really loved, but you can’t just replace something that works perfectly fine. It didn’t give her the impression that the clothing was super clean. She would regularly comment that the clothes were sometimes soaking wet coming out even after the spin cycle was completed while other times it felt as if they hadn’t been wet at all.
Fast forward to the new home, where the space the washer and dryer were supposed to occupy was not sized appropriately. The opening was a little over an inch too narrow. Normally I would do some form of rehab work to widen the gap and make the things fit, but it just wasn’t going to be economical for us to do that this time. Between a load bearing wall and a cabinet with built-in sink, there wasn’t a real option to easily make this work. So we decided to sell the old set and get a new pair that would fit in the allotted space.
When the new set arrived, we did all the hook ups and leveling and ran a “test” load to ensure the spin cycle wouldn’t shake the house off its foundation. All was good. So we loaded up some sheets and towels for the first official load in the new washing machine.
Much to our amazement, this washer was legit washing our clothing. I know it might not mean much to anyone else but the front door is a window and we could see the water coming in and the clothing sloshing around in the water at the bottom of the drum. The towels and sheets would slowly spin through the water soaking up little bits with each passing spin.
Life as a follower of Jesus is sometimes like that old washing machine of ours. We go through life and don’t really show any signs of being soaked by Jesus. We’re not saturated by the truths of the gospel. It’s almost as if we just dip our toes in the waters of baptism and think that’s enough. This is one of the great benefits of the imagery associated with a full immersion kind of baptism. Now before some of you get all weirded out by that statement, yes I’m a Lutheran pastor and yes we baptize infants and no we don’t normally have immersion type baptisms. I just said I like the imagery associated with the full body soaking in an immersion scenario. Even though I’m not opposed to immersion by any stretch of imagination.
But water alone isn’t the point. It’s not like sprinkling someone with water or soaking them in a pool is really going to change much for anyone. The truth of the matter is it’s the gospel that makes the difference. We need to be soaked in the waters of the gospel truth. We need to be totally immersed in the life of Jesus. A program here and there won’t do anything for us. As much as I love the whole idea of church planting and missional communities, they are not a golden ticket to a more Jesus filled church. They are tools for growing the kingdom, but the real meat and potatoes of the meal of kingdom growth is found in gospel saturation. Lives totally immersed in the life giving truths of Jesus.
So the long and short of this whole story is that a new washing machine helped me realize that perhaps we might need to change the way we spin through the waters. That’s the key difference between the old and new washing machine. The old was a top load while the new is a front load. A simple shift in how we approach matters of faith might yield a massive difference in how saturated we become with the grace of God.
Today I encourage you to spin through your time with God a little differently. Don’t take for granted the simple things. Maybe it’s where you sit while you read. Or what bible you use for your daily reading. Maybe listen to it read while going for a walk. Or play the daily reading while you’re driving to work. Let God change the direction of your spin through His word and watch what a life saturated by the gospel can do for your outlook on life.