All Dressed Up

Have you ever found yourself needing to dress for work and you have nothing clean to wear?

My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, 'Have a seat here, please,' while to the one who is poor you say, 'Stand there,' or, 'Sit at my feet,' have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? - James 2:1-4

James reminds us that we are quick to judge based on appearance and while he criticizes us for it, perhaps it could inspire us to do something to change the situation for the one we are quick to judge.

I recently had someone come to me and tell me that he struggles to find the money to wash his clothes and it really upsets him because he doesn't want people to be offended if he smells bad.

That made me wonder if there are programs out there to help people do their laundry.

A brief search led me to a pastor who started a volunteer program to help people avoid the embarrassment of such judgments. It is called Laundry Love and it is spreading across the country.

The idea was born out of a comment made by someone who was struggling to make ends meet.  He said, "If I had clean clothes, people would treat me as a human being."

That was similar to what I was told, and I get it.  What opportunities can come to someone wearing dirty clothes?

The pastor describes Laundry Love as a modern day footwashing, where people gather together in a laundromat to wash the clothes of individuals and families in need.

I have talked to a few people about this and I think there may be a version of this model that could work.  Rather than take the clothes from the people, why not go with them and help them get them washed and dried?

We will need to raise the money to pay for the laundromat, but when we have enough, we can then go with them and take the time while we wait to get to know each other.

When James points out that we would invite the well-dressed man to sit with us, he is telling us we would not have a chance to get to know the other guy, since we would not invite him to come close.

This would be a way to change that.

So, what do you think?  Is it worth a try?

I think I will reach out to the guy who came to me and give it a shot.  Let me know if you'd like to come along.

More to come...