laundromat Theology

Photograph by

Victor A. Jones, Jr.

"We're all in the same boat,

and we're all seasick."

G.K. Chesterton

     Laundromat chairs are functional, not comfortable. Maybe comfort is overrated. 

I just finished Tell Me A Story, Finding God (and Ourselves) Through Narrative by Scott McClellan. He mentions a group whose theology was 'formed in a season of abundance.' It's dangerous to frame a worldview from a comfortable chair. 

     This is Passover Week. Millions of people this week will retell a story of escape and a story of wilderness wandering. The wilderness is not comfortable. It's also dangerous to frame a worldview in the wilderness. 

     Agur the son of Jakeh, the oracle, said this,

"Two things I asked of Thee, O' God,

do not refuse me before I die:

Keep deception and lies far from me,

Give me neither poverty nor riches;

feed me with the food that is my portion,

Lest I be full and deny Thee

and say, "Who is the Lord?"

Or lest I be in want and steal,

and profane the name of my God."

Proverbs 30:7-9

     In the 1st Century AD, a Jewish Pharisee turned tentmaker wrote these words to a group of people in the Mediterranean city of Philippi-

"I know how to get along with humble means,

and I also know how to live in prosperity;

in any and every circumstance

I have learned the secret of being filled

and going hungry,

both of having abundance and suffering need.

I can do all things through Him

who strengthens me."

Philippians 4:12,13

     And so, as I frame these thoughts from a laundromat chair I am grateful for this remembrance-

I have clothes.