My Life In A Dryer

For the past six months I feel as though I’ve been living in a clothes dryer.

I tumble from thing to thing to thing, from to this to that and to the other in an unending cycle going nowhere.

The problem with doing one job is that it reveals another job that also needs doing.

When I paint a wall, then I notice how much the trim around the window needs painting. When I paint the window trim, I see how dirty the curtains are. Washing the curtains, exposes how much dust has built up on the plate rail. Dusting the plate rail shows how badly the ceiling fan needs cleaning.

This process continues till I find myself digging out drainpipes underneath the concrete slab house foundation — which I see is being cracked by tree roots, so I’ll need to…

At some point I have to call a halt.

I have to declare that it’s Good Enough.

If I don’t call that halt and make that declaration, then my life careens out of control and my days are dictated by an ever accumulating array of tasks which, while nice, are not necessary.

I have to learn to say, “It’s good enough for now”.

Acknowledging the Good Enough is especially important in marriage. Because, although Ginny and I are what the Bible calls “One Flesh”, we are not always of one mind. In fact, I’m married to this left-handed, wrong-headed woman.

She does not see things or do things the way I do.

And, instead of forcing the issue and fussing at eachother over trivia, we’ve each had to learn to tolerate the other person’s methods and acknowledge that while the job is not done the way I’d do it, it’s been done Good Enough.

No job is as important as she is.

Getting along with her matters more than seeing the job done perfectly (meaning as I would have done it).

Remember back in November when I was writing a book on the history of the Jacksonville Fire Department?

Then I put that book aside to celebrate our anniversary, then came Thanksgiving and Christmas and four family birthdays, then our daughter’s wedding, which led to replacing the rotten wood on the back deck, which meant painting, which meant sealing the wood with tar, which led to clearing bushes from the house foundations which led to transplanting thorn bushes and replacing rain gutters.

That job revealed that I needed to clear books out of the storage shed which meant culling the bookcases inside to make room for the books from outside, and that means collecting things for a garage sale next month which means I’ll need to …

See what I mean about living in a clothes dryer?

What I need to do is finish writing that history of the fire department.

The status of the house is good enough.

In fact, the place is in better shape than it has been for years.

The same can’t be said of me.

I’ve lost my focus.

Time to say Good Enough and do what I’m called to do.

Author Stephen King, who once worked in a laundry, urges aspiring writers to stop dicking around and write. He points out that it is entirely possible to spent the rest or your life trying to do your laundry to perfection.

But we aspiring writers tend to think the primary activity of a writer is to avoid writing.

The thing is, B-List projects are so much easier to do than A-List projects. B-List things are manageable. When I check a B-List project off my list, I feel a sense of accomplishment. I see immediate results. And I’ve gotten the job done in a controllable time-frame.

And when I chop down a tree, that sucker stays chopped down!

B-List stuff is not an on-going, life-long job — like living for Christ.

Walking with Christ can never simply be checked off my list as over and done with. And, the results are seldom visible. And I have to keep going back to basics as though I’d never started in the first place.

Being a Christian is not for sissies.

It’s easier to write a history of the fire department than to walk with Him and it’s easier to paint walls and cull books and tar wood and salvage bricks and level flagstones than it is to write a history book.

I keep thinking that in order to be thoroughly Christian, I need to know more, to see deeper, to read classics, to think harder…

BULL!

All we ever need to know about God, we already know.

That's true of everyone.

The ball’s in our court now.

———

I think I’m dry now. Ginny and I are taking several days off to recharge our batteries. So I’m unlikely to post in this journal again till after April 14^th — That’s the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic; no group invited me to lecture about Dr. Bateman and the Titanic this year, but click here if you’re interesting in reading a chapter I wrote about it.

And, when we get back from our time off, I intend, God willing, to resume writing that fire history book.

Or, I may just keep tumbling along.

I need to take down that rickety garden shed, or clear the jungle path, or transplant the mulberry tree or … by the time I get finished, the house will need repainting again!

So goes my life in a clothes dryer.

PS: the graphic is from http://monkeyinadryerblog.blogspot.com