While praying over the issues in friends’ lives recently, I found myself wishing I could take their lives, fling them out like bedsheets and smooth them out again as when making a bed.
Silly, of course, so I settled down and prayed for the peace that passes all understanding and that the Lord would make their way clear.
But I kept thinking about a well-made bed and wondered if there may be some spiritual applications.
A bed becomes rumpled when you sleep in it–actually use it for the purpose for which it’s intended. It’s not meant to remain pristine and neatly arrayed if it’s being properly slept in. Some people, apparently, can lie down like a log and never move all night long and wake up to a bed that takes seconds to restore to order.
Others, however, thrash and carry on (perhaps alone, perhaps with another) and arise from a disordered heap of tumbled linens.
Likewise, some live practical lives of spiritual piety: ordered, straight, narrow and complete.
Others . . . not so much.
Some live in the chaotic give and take of a Holy Spirit-following mess–responding where we believe God leads us even if it doesn’t make sense and frequently when it involves others.
The majority probably float back and forth– living in perfect obedience to God and marveling how easily things flow together when you walk with Jesus; other days wondering if the will of God means an out of control cacophony of activities and events.
Much like beds in the morning.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand to sleep in a tangled mass of unmade bed sheets. Even if I’m about to climb in, I stop and pull everything straight, smooth out the blankets and plump up the pillows. It doesn’t have to be hospital corners and military taut bounce-a-coin-off-the top, but it needs the wrinkles brushed out.
Just like my soul.
Some days I sit down to pray and my emotions and life feel bunched up and out of sorts. Perhaps I’ve kicked my attitude toward God into a pile at the foot of my bed. Possibly I’ve slung the pillow of my anger at the headboard and missed. Maybe I’ve tried to cover my shame with a blanket pulled out of its tucked security.
Often when I pause to examine the unmade aspects of my spiritual life, I don’t even want to climb in there because I know I’ll have no rest until it’s all straightened out.
How do you get rid of the wrinkles in your soul?
You start by throw off all the covers–expose all the hidden crevices of your soul to God. Let His cleansing forgiveness air out the darkness and clear the covers of deceit.
You then smooth out those scrunched sheets by telling God about them and asking Him to forgive you. It’s like straightening the bottom sheet.
Sometimes you have to restore relationships back to where they belong, like tugging the top sheet neat and matching it to the fitted bottom. Part of forgiveness can involve the person you’ve wronged, or who has wronged you. Too many times, I have to write humble letters of apology and ask someone to overlook my sin.
In colder months we need blankets. I fold them in with the top sheet. On desperate days, I use the hospital corners to tug the bedding taut. Sometimes we need to help ourselves avoid a disheveled mess by erecting boundaries–if we can’t control our behavior an external force may be necessary to keep us tucked into the straight and narrow . . . bed.
And then I toss over it all a polished bedspread of grace–perhaps quilted with experiences. I brush out the creases–overlook the flaws–and plump up the pillows of love to match.
And then, once the bed of my soul is straightened, I can climb in again–able to relax into the restful life God has created for me.
And you.
It’s a messy life full of complications, tumbles, scuffles, mussing and joy.
But every night I return to the Master bed maker and He restores my soul.
Thanks be to God.
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