Laundry Lessons

An Inspiring Story About Socks 

This morning, while preparing for a run, I was rummaging around in a small pile of clothes for the companion to one of my favorite athletic socks. I held its counterpart in my right hand and a small bundle of clothes I had hastily grabbed to move out of the way in my left hand, all while shuffling other clothes in the large pile around with my tightened fist. Finally, after about two minutes of searching, I gave up, assuming that the sock was still in the wash with another load of laundry. But, when I laid down the bundle of clothes I was holding, I discovered that the twin sock had been nestled in that tiny heap the entire time.

I know this story was incredibly gripping and moved you to reevaluate the entire course of your life. I promise, it really does have a point.

Sometimes, we spend our lives searching for the very thing that we already hold in our possession. The “grass is always greener” is a concept infecting the thoughts of many. We are blessed with so much, and yet we keep searching. I think this happens for a lot of reasons, but here are two that I see often (and relate directly to my exciting sock story).

1. We forget how precious each blessing is.

The truth of the matter is that it is human nature to underappreciate. Entitlement is a disease infecting us all, and the strongest strain of that disease is most definitely in America, the land of abundance. Whether it’s material possessions, family, basic human rights, or even faith, so many begin to look at these things as if they are owed to us, when in reality they are gracious gifts of God. In the midst of this faulty assumption, we find these blessings growing ever more dull and often fail to see their value any longer.

How sad when we complain about not having enough, when we hurt our families because we forget how intrinsically precious they are, when we take for granted the rights men and women have given their very lives to protect, when we treat God like a vending machine instead of our closest and truest Friend all because we fail to assign proper value to these things. 

2. We let these blessings get buried under piles of life.

Like my favorite sock, blessings can be hidden under piles of unnecessary clutter. Sometimes, we get so bogged down with work, school, programs, church events, destructive relationships, etc. that we lose sight of the most important things in life. When our souls come up empty, we head over to the “laundry pile” of our lives to try to find the satisfying element. The saddest moment is when we realize that it had been at our fingertips the whole time, completely accessible to us, and buried under mounds of the unimportant and unnecessary. If we refuse to let the useless junk go, we will find ourselves continually miserable, and we might just lose those underappreciated gifts (especially if those gifts are people).  

A Good Long Look

I encourage you—if you are searching for something today, take inventory of the life you have before setting out to add to it. If you take a good long look at what already fills your hands, you might find that you had what you were looking for the whole time.