I am guilty of money laundering.

Tuesday, I opened lawn mowing season. There was a Tuesday miracle. The mower started on the first pull after sitting in the shed since October. I mowed the part of the backyard belonging to the dogs. The lawn man has a well-earned fear of my dogs. Come to think of it, everyone is afraid of my dogs. They are very sweet girls to me. If you come to the back gate, they will try to chew your arm off at the elbow.

I don’t think they would hurt anyone; they bark like they would.
I nearly finished the dog yard mowing but was interrupted by the little rain shower that appeared over the back yard.

I had not intended to mow. My original plan was to see if the mower would start. It is a cantankerous mower. It runs when it wants to run. I was surprised when it started on the first tug. I was so surprised that I decided I should not waste the opportunity. I found myself mowing in my “good tennis shoes” and my “good jeans.”

The jeans were soiled with “mowing dirt.” The dirty jeans led to an impromptu laundry session. I don’t believe that the Lord wants me wasting time sorting clothes for laundry. I don’t! Tide pods and cold-water work very well in all kinds of mixed laundry. I had everything in the impromptu Tuesday afternoon laundry load.

If you were keeping up, you noticed I left out a step. I did not remove my wallet from the jeans when I tossed them in. I am guilty of money laundering, credit card laundering, driver’s license laundering and insurance card laundering. I have never washed a full wallet before.

I opened the washer to move the clothes to the dryer and out tumbled my wet, limp, soggy wallet. There is only one word to use when a casserole falls on the kitchen floor or a wet wallet falls out of the washer. I see you know that word. I am not allowed to use that specific word. I said, “Behold! I have laundered money.”

There was a great deal of self-recrimination related to the wet wallet. It was a stupid thing to do. But it served a two-fold teachable moment. First, I have been distracted. Not to bother you guys but the Methodist denomination is about to morph into two, possibly three new denominations. That issue is so parochial it only bugs ministers. If it happens or doesn’t happen, clergy will likely be the only ones with any skin in the denominational kerfuffle. I’m glad that when we get to heaven there are NO denominations. Second, it was a reminder that once a process starts, it often can’t be stopped. Put it like this, sin will have consequences even if Jesus forgives you.

I was mowing the yard trying to figure out the permutations and combinations of the potential denominational division. I was jolted back to mowing reality when I stepped in a couple of the dog’s newest archaeological digs. Otherwise, I was not paying attention.

I was not paying attention when I threw the jeans in the wash, wallet and all.

When I am distracted, I take my eyes off Jesus.

Is that true for you?