Dirty laundry is never ending. It never goes away. Even after all the clothes are clean, dry, and folded, the clothes you have on are always dirty at the end of the day.
When I began to do my laundry by hand in Agoo, this truth became very real to me. When I used the washing machine in the USA, laundry was not a difficult chore. Throwing my dirty clothes into the laundry basket was no big deal. But, once I started doing my laundry by hand with my fingers raw and bleeding, the work of dirty laundry became a whole new story. I became a slave to my laundry. It became a thorn in my side. No matter what I did, I could not get rid of my dirty laundry. The only way to get rid of the problem of my dirty laundry was to find someone to do my laundry for me -- a labandera/laundry woman.
God taught me that sin is like dirty laundry. We can never get rid of it. We can never get to the bottom of it. At the end of every day, there is some sin looking me in the face. I had to learn to give my sin to Jesus in the same way I had to learn to give my dirty laundry to the labandera/laundry woman. When I give my sin to Jesus, I am no longer a slave to my sin. Jesus takes it from me and so I become a slave to righteousness and not sin.
Being a slave to righteousness means that doing the right thing becomes second nature. You don't have to pray about it, it just comes natural. You know right away what is right and what is wrong. I do believe that after 20 years in the Philippines, I can truly say that I am a slave to righteousness. Am I perfect? NO. But, doing the right thing comes naturally now. And, when I make a mistake, that is exactly what it is -- a mistake. Not a deliberate act of sin.
I still have a lot left to learn. I still have a long way to go in my life and spiritual walk. But, I am grateful to God for all that I have learned these past 20 years. One of them is that a slave to righteousness is a person who has given his sin to Jesus and does not dwell on it. Jesus takes it and deals with it. I don't have to think about my dirty laundry at the end of the day because Jesus is with me to help me get rid of it. Oh what a comfort.
God is like that. He knows that sin is never ending. He knows that I can't do it alone. My job is to give it to Him. My job is to understand that He knows the way that I take.
