My kitchen sink can be a holy place. It certainly doesn’t look like it at the moment. But Tim Chester’s excellent new book from 10ofthose reminds me that it can be if
… [I] offer up [my] washing of the dishes to God as a sacrifice of praise, sharing his delight in creation and serving others in love.
In The Everyday Gospel, Chester helps me to see that everyday activities, like washing the dishes, can be made holy because of the saving activity of Jesus. This extended meditation on a mundane task points me to remember that God orders chaos and that God serves his people. So when I turn a basket of crumpled clothes into a neatly ironed and folded pile, I am being like God by ordering the disordered and by serving my family by providing them with wearable shirts.
Chester also points out that I can use these times of everyday activity to trace God’s handiwork – to contemplate how He has worked to create the pans in my sink, how he made my food, traces of which I am washing away. I can use washing up time to talk to my children, or visitors in my home – for pastoral care. These times are not the bits in between time for God. All of time, however inconsequential it seems, can be holy.
A short and accessible read, this book would be brilliant for anyone who ever has to do anything boring. So I make that everyone.
A Holy Place?
NB This review has also been posted on 10ofthose – they sent me a review copy. No illustrative pic of my kitchen sink over there though.
The Vicar's Wife 
I am reminded of St. Cuthbert, who diligently made all his labour into a prayerful sacrifice. So saying, I need to go and do some housework instead of reading blogs
Also (just before I go and do something useful!), I often listen to audiobooks while doing housework, which includes Christian books. I’ve listened to books by Ann Voskamp, Richard Foster, Rachel Held Evans, Adrian Plass, Julian of Norwich, St. John of the Cross, etc., etc. It’s a great way to learn and make the time go by! Sometimes I listen to music, too, secular and Christian. I like to talk to God as I go through the day. He knows what a mess I am and He seems to like me anyway, so… I’m off now to ‘minister’ to my own messy sink 😉
Thanks sandy. In the book Tim Chester quotes from Brother Lawrence and his book ‘The Practice of the Presence of God’, who took the same approach.