For the Hurt.

Lift your eyes
Lift your head, lift your spirits
I know that fear
I see that regret

Lift your soul
Lift your hopes, raise them higher
I know you feel weak
that you are so tired

But I, I promise one day
You'll do more than survive
Life seems so tough
its hard to get by

With just yourself, nobody around
Just yourself, you keep lookin down
Just yourself, your worth more than you know
Just yourself, no place to go you say

I sure wish I could fly
I'd fly far, far away and never come back
never again to the reality of me.

Don't you think
Don't you think, Don't you think
We were created
created for more?

Don't you see
Don't you see, Don't you see
There's hope for the tired
the sad and the meek?

But I, I promise one day

You'll do more than survive

Life seems so tough

its hard to get by

With just yourself, nobody around

Just yourself, you keep lookin down

Just yourself, your worth more than you know

Just yourself, no place to go you say

I sure wish I could fly

I'd fly far, far away and never come back

never again to the reality of me.

Stories from October 15th Laundry Love Project

As I think about the Laundry Love Project, one of the things that has become very apparent to me is how it has taken on a life of its own. It may have started out as a little seed of an idea that God placed on my heart, but it has grown into something way beyond myself and that has had way more influence and impact than I could have anticipated or brought about on my own. To me the best part of this fact is that it means that this isn't Corey's thing, no this is so much more than that. Laundry Love has become a vehicle through which God has begun to change lives and bring his kingdom to this Earth. 

For example, life has been crazy, and I slipped up and didnt get to advertise this months laundry love at all. Nada. Zip. Nothin to let our customers know we were coming to serve them today. I have to admit, I was worried. But when I arrived at the laundromat there was already 15 people there waiting to get laundry done. In total we had about 35 people today, probably more, that we were able to serve and bring clean laundry and friendship too. All from word of mouth.

People are talking all right, and their voices are echoing a love that is not of this Earth, a love that connects our finite broken lives with the infinite loving God who is faithful and mighty to save.

You wont find any glamorous stories from this month's laundry love as far as those we serve are concerned. Only people that have consistently come to our project whose lives we have been able to touch and whose stories we have gotten to know on more than just a surface level. Relationships and connection between the social and economic classes are becoming a reality, and the gospel is being lived out in community.

It's gotten to the point where there is rarely a person that comes in with laundry that at least one of our volunteers hasnt built a relationship with yet. And I'm not talking about idealistic incarnation, I'm talking real, messy, complicated human relationship that is being taken on and people that are being shown the love of God in practical ways.

Im proud of our volunteers. And it hit me today how God has always provided the right people at the right time. People who are ready and willing to break down barriers and boundaries between us and the poor. People who are willing to take up their crosses and step out of their comfort zones into the lives of those in need of love and provision. 

Praise God for the work he is doing for his kingdom and for how he is changing the lives of both us and those we serve through relationship, community, and his divine Grace. Praise God for how Laundry Love Project has become about more than just clothes.

The Heart of the Matter.

It seems like I keep falling into these traps. It seems like I keep making mistakes that I can't seem to shake. Everytime I start to feel apart from God, even in the slightest, its like these empty wells are just calling out to me, enticing me with promises of relief from the pain and a distraction from what's really happening in my heart.

So beneath all the frustration, all the seemingly horrible and unforgivable mistakes, all the winless and endless battles with myself, lies the heart of the matter. And after all, isn't that what's most important?

I distinctly remember reading scripture where Jesus address these rituals and laws that the religious leaders held so dear and tells them plainly: It’s not what goes in or comes out that defiles a person, It’s what is in his or her heart. (Matt. 15:11-20).


So what I find is at the heart of my constant screw up is the belief that God desires to be absent from my life and that he does not love me unconditionally. Mine is a faith that is built on my performance. The truth that God is for me no matter what and that his fatherly love is not dependent on me seems out of reach sometimes. 


I'm learning that, in being called to obedience, what God is really calling me to is adoption into his family. He is saying "I created you, I know how you tick. I know what hurts you, I know what makes you joyful. I know where you run when you are in pain, I know what can heal you."


When I sin, I act on what is inside my heart. If it is doubt, hopelessness, and hurt, then I have to replace that with the truth of who God is and how he perceives me.


When I think of obedience to God, I recognize it as a process where God breaks away the things that are not of him so that when I look in the mirror I can start to see his beauty looking back at me.


We are called to Identity in the Father, and to obedience for our own good. Furthermore we are called to recognize that we serve a God who "chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,so that no one may boast before him." (1 Cor. 1:27-29)


Not only is God's love relentless, not only does he call us to his side for an unconditional love that is not based on performance, but He calls us to be more than we could ever have imagined. He calls us to partner with Him for his work on this Earth.

I don't want to merely survive my way through life anymore, I want the fullness of God. I want to serve him with my WHOLE heart.