Soapy Sin

I happen to have a beautiful shower which means we have a large glass door and glass panels. It makes a gorgeous look that I knew right away would be my one cleaning monster to conquer. I have had the luxury of glass shower doors previously and knew that the only way to have a clean shower door is to never let it get dirty. HA! Yeah right!

So, the next best step of never using this beautiful functional shower is to buy or create a cleansing spray that you can use on the shower door after each encounter with soap & shampoo. Of course, some would say that glycerin soap will not require as much maintenance, but honestly, my husband and I use different soaps and it’s typically the oh so “professional” hair products that cause the largest soap scum. So, the reality is that we “spray” our shower with a shower cleaner lightly (less than when cleaning) after each use and then a regular monthly cleaning keeps it completely clean.

Yes, I just told you that I only clean my shower once a month. But have no fear, it’s clean.

EXCEPT for when I “sin” against my shower and get too busy to spray it every day. Although my shower doesn’t get mad at me and doesn’t even care when I miss one or two days of “pre-cleaning” that lack of faithfulness will land me in trouble. I can find that if I just don’t have time to spray my shower today then forget tomorrow I will end up with 4 or 5 days worth of what seems to be an overnight situation of soap scum.

Then, it hit me in the shower one day while I was dreading the actual scrubbing with ammonia to come. GEE, Shelley, this soapy build up didn’t appear overnight, but you just couldn’t “see” it before this morning because it was in small amounts and relatively clear. Yes, you are all smarter than me I am sure but ultimately my spiritual life flashed before me in this soapy residue.
I do great for a long time; maybe even go a few years without missing the time I need to invest in my spiritual health. I will be on a regular routine of quiet time (meditation scares Christians so I leave that word out), looking to the Word for insight, being mindful of who I am and who I am not (repenting to turn away from the things I don’t want to be) and even chatting about spiritual challenges with friends on a regular basis. Thus, I am really doing what can be radically viewed as daily cleansing and a renewal of my mind. Yet, let one area get to be too hard for my schedule or if I allow myself to become too independent and lose those thought provoking spiritual growth opportunities for too long and uh oh! I can find myself looking through foggy spiritual eyes and missing something. In one moment in less than a minute I stood in my soapy reflection of that glass door and saw a window into my soul’s stained glass.

Is it hard to clean a glass door covered in soap scum? NO, not if you have the right formula.

My soul can be stained with unimaginable sin, and only one prayer of belief in a God who loves me can wash it all away. Does that sin re-stain that glass, no, I don’t believe so. If I go back out and sin again do I lose my salvation, no, I don’t think that happens either – I am talking about clarity and vision. Sin does separate us from our God, and although a savior (Jesus) can save us & wash us clean in one prayer; we become a saint trapped in a sin-craving body who has to be tamed. We ultimately all sin after we are saved and if not looked after with some internal thought, thoughtful conversations and finding insights in the Word of God…or whatever you think the Bible tells you to do to maintain a healthy balanced lifestyle… I think we can start to see things in a less than clean light. I think maybe that is when we are easily offended, or even when we become innocently used by gossip, or maybe that’s why people who love Jesus forget how to love other people who also love Jesus?

Look, I am not saying this was a divine moment that someone should live by. I am telling you that I know what I realized in that soap scum build up that had taken over a portion of my shower door: if I leave this, it will quickly turn this beautiful bathroom into a place no one wants to shower, but the simplest of acts will make this shower door look brand new and that is a chance I don’t want to pass up.

My grandmother was a woman of God who often said, “the bible won’t tell you this, but cleanliness is the closest thing to Godliness.” I am NOT saying that, the Lord knows I don’t keep the kind of clean house my grandmother kept. I AM SAYING that a little bit of time spent on making myself aware of how I can live better, show more love to others, give more of myself away with thought & purpose within a balanced lifestyle of friends and social groups that inspire me – those things help keep my spiritual windows to the outside world less tainted and easier for people to see what I have holding me together inside this life. Let’s face it, without a way to see IN my life, no one is going to see the GOODNESS of GOD in me.

Really, I want to see out, but I more importantly want to be transparent enough for people to not focus on my flaws (soapy residue), but on the One who inspires me to Love them. I don’t want my life’s soap scum to get in their way.