Have you ever looked inside your washing machine and wondered how it gets clothes so clean? You might be surprised to know that it isn’t just the soap… or the hot water… it’s that column in the middle that usually has plastic fins that rotate all the way around. It’s called an agitator… and without one, your clothes would smell better but they wouldn’t be clean. During the wash cycle, this agitator forces the clothes to move around… from the bottom to the top of the water and back down… preventing laundry from just floating on the surface. This constant movement allows the soap and water to fully saturate the materials and clean the clothes.
Agitators in a washing machine make it work to it’s fullest potential. They do the same thing in our lives as well. Our agitators take many forms… those that bother us, those that are jealous of us, those that disagree with our decisions, or those that just plain rub us the wrong way. They agitate, irritate, instigate, and infuriate us to the point that we wonder why God allows them into our day-to-day. He does it because in dealing with them… we grow. James 1:3 tells us that testing produces endurance. Loving those that frustrate us builds character. Caring for those that don’t care for us allows us to be more like Christ. Anyone can be friendly to the friendly… but it’s when we extend grace to the agitators of life that we truly exhibit the character of the One who wants to see us grow through the process.
