I don’t know why, but for me everything has meaning. There is a deeper message in the patterns of life or a quote taken out of context. It’s the way I think, feel and make sense of the world.

Many times when I try and share the relevance in the seemingly irrelevant things of everyday existence I get comments like “you make my head hurt” or “can’t we just hang out for a change”.

But my mind is never off, it’s always trying to figure out the deeper lessons in life. And it’s become so prevalent that it happens to me all day long in seemingly ridiculous ways.

… is it a gift?

… a curse?

… Is it God?

Maybe even mental illness or just flights of imagination?

I’ve decided I would let you guys decide for yourself and open the door on another part of me.

The good news is, these will be short, very short, not like my typical 2,000+ word essays.

Prayerfully something in these diatribes can prove useful, insightful or simply anecdotally amusing.

And if you think I’m nuts, share that with me too. I would love to get your feedback on these or hear some of your own.

This one came to me as I crawled into bed last night and is still resonating with me this morning. It has the honor of being the first parable I’m sharing with my WordPress family and I’m not sure how I feel about that, you will understand more as you read it.

Sheet Fan $99  | Image Source

Parable #1 -Clean Sheets

It has been a difficult stretch, my CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) has been in a flare-up and when that happens I can be bed bound for days straight, housebound for a week or even longer.

And during the last few days, something has been feasting on me overnight. I wake up with fresh welts all over my lower legs, arms, and even kneck and face. I don’t have pets, have never had fleas, don’t see any flying critters, it’s not bed bugs.

I don’t know what it is, BUT IT HAS GOT TO STOP!

So yesterday I made the extraordinary effort (for me) to strip the bed and head down to the local laundromat for the $5 per load giant machines to wash the comforters, sheets, bed wraps, cases… EVERYTHING.

And although I am a morning shower person, last night I showered before bed.

I then put on clean jammies, burned incense and even listened to Indian flute music through Alexa… this night NOTHING was going to get to me!

Can you imagine the scene?

A hot shower, fresh clean bedding, fluffed pillows, clean clothes, lavender scent in the air.

As I crawled into bed I literally felt like I was on vacation and this moment was one of pure paradise.

I buried my face into the pillows and inhaled deeply, wrapped the comforter up tight around my neck, and almost cried at how beautiful this moment truly felt.

And then it happened… small stomach cramps… a shifting intestinal bubble… a bead of sweat on the brow… and the release… paradise lost in a flash as this olfactory bliss became a dutch oven.

And then it hit me, how much is this just like our faith walk?

We come to the cross, covered in shame. We blew it again, our sins exposed until our emotions are raw. And God, as always, responds with “what sin” and we are washed clean by the atonement of His Son.

It is never about us, we can’t out-sin the cross.

And just how long does it take before our white-robed, written-in-the-book of life freshly clean, confessed, repented and redeemed bodies go out and stink up the neighborhood again with the stench of pride, lust, anger, resentment, entitlement, selfishness, fear or some other “human condition” that can’t be easily controlled… just like flatulence in clean sheets. 

Welcome to the place where Christianity meets humanity, nobody said it was pretty. 

So, what do you think, silly? profound? rediculous?

As I mentioned, these come up all the time. Being that this is the first one I’m sharing, it will be the anchor for a new themed series I will link in the menus above. All future parables will be short and to the point, and you can draw from them whatever you may.

And hopefully, I don’t begin to make your head hurt.

Blessings in Christ,

George