When Obedience Triumphs Over Feelings

Over the past week I was privileged to travel back to Peru with a group of gospel-glorifying, missions-driven, and selfless people.  It was such a joy to day after day watch the two different cultures, languages, and people groups interact in a way that made much of Jesus.

A few of the lovely ladies

While there is so much I could say about the time we spent in Peru, there was a moment that will forever stick out in my head.  Two hours actually.  It was two hours that seemed like nothing, and yet the Lord used it to show me how His sovereignty and character can be displayed in the little, everyday redundant task.
As I stood on the roof of the orphanage that we were working with, I was blown away by clothes line after clothes line that were lined up perfectly holding the vast amount of laundry that was daily used at the place.  Yet it was not the amount, but the fact that all of it had been hand washed and scrubbed.  Two ladies, twenty four years, eight hours a day.  After hearing this my one load of clothes a week seemed like nothing (not to mention the washer and dryer that I daily take for granted).
For two hours that morning I stood there in the outside cold, misty weather and wrung clothes out as the ladies washed them.  When the time was up I was cold, my back was sore, my hands hurt, and I turned around to see the lady still persistently scrubbing at the pile that kept building up.  Twenty four years? How? And why? It was not fun, happy, and relaxing. Isn't that how things should be?
Why twenty four years? I did not even have to ask the ladies; the Lord made it very clear.  Obedience.
It was such a great wake up call and reminder for me in my life.  The Lord reminded me that joy is found in obedience and not the pleasures that the world offers.  Therefore if my days consist of scrubbing and wringing out clothes, joy can be present.  If my days are going to work and coming home to school, joy can be found.  When I feel like I am living on cloud nine, joy is present.  On the other hand when I cannot hold my head up, joy is not lost.
I think our culture can have the capacity to convince us that obedience means living an extreme life. Speaking to thousands, writing NY best selling books, moving to the high risk danger countries, or whatever the case may be. But I think there is freedom in the fact that sometimes obedience looks like just grabbing the next stack of clothes.