Shower thoughts
I had a very simple but important topic on my mind yesterday: showering.
Showering is something we do regularly (at least I hope so!), for the purpose of cleansing our bodies of any bacteria, oil, and dirt. It's also an opportunity to get rid of any unwanted hair and exfoliate our skin.
There are times when extra time and attention is required -- like if we've been doing a bunch of yard work or have gone on a big camping/hiking adventure and are covered in layers of sweat and dirt.
Both types of showers serve the same purpose: to clean our bodies and start again fresh.
If showering was something we reserved for the times when extra cleanup was needed, we'd actually smell pretty unpleasant to be around.
With the "cleansing as part of daily life" mindset, showering becomes really simple and easy: get in, lather up, shave, and rinse (with a shampoo/condition and extra exfoliation in there a couple times a week). It can even be fun, if you're a shower karaoke enthusiast or a deep shower thinker -- or of course if you have one of those fancy steam ones....
I digress.
You may have caught on by now that I'm not just talking about showering in the literal context. I'm also talking about it as a metaphor for renewing our relationship with Christ.
We don't have to wait until we make a huge mistake and need to do a spiritual "power wash" to get back to a healthy/joyful state. We can (spiritually) shower daily, removing the unwanted extras that we can't even see, but that build up without regular upkeep. We can regularly realign with Him and move forward--fresh, clean. and renewed.
Note: in church we call this repentance, which can sometimes be understood as a whole process to work through in stages, to get back on track after hard life issues like addiction, infidelity, etc. While the word does cover this, it also refers to the simple daily renewal that we can have by giving our burdens and doubts to Christ and moving forward in His light and strength. Maybe we should just start calling it "spiritual hygiene."
