One of the minor inconveniences of traveling is figuring out the nuances of every new shower that you encounter. It seems like showers are like snowflakes: God has never made the same one twice. The infinite combination of water pressure, fittings, shower heads, stalls, tubs, curtains, doors, foot traction, etc. makes cuing the cascade of cleanliness more akin to a very wet game of roulette than the relaxing and rejuvenating experience it is intended to be.
My wife and I just returned from a fantastic trip to Boston for a family wedding. The trip went smoothly, the happy couple got hitched successfully, and we even did some sightseeing. One wonderful part of the trip was that Sara's aunt and uncle generously opened up their home for us to stay in during the week leading up to the wedding as base camp for our expeditions into Boston.
Even if we are family, we were still guests in their house so everyone walked the tight rope of appreciative deference vs. overlooking the inconveniences that allows for safe passage between "Hello" and "Goodbye."
The first morning I went to get in the shower, and began my shower showdown. Scene: claw-foot tub, free-standing shower head, circular curtain rod, shower curtain hung on hooks (not rings). An important piece of information not previously mentioned: This is a house of Sara's aunt and uncle and their four grown and (mostly) moved out daughters. The evidence of elevated estrogen is still present throughout the house, nowhere more so than in the shower. Half of the real estate inside of the floor of this claw-foot is being tenanted by orphaned and abandoned shampoo and conditioner bottles (why can't everyone get along and use the same S&C?).
Anyway, I get the water successfully streaming and steaming to a safe and satisfactory status and gingerly step into the tub. The traction in the bottom of a strange tub is impossible to gauge, but I negotiated it successfully. My success ended there however. In an effort to keep my "good house guest" status at an appropriately high level, I reached up and quickly pulled the shower curtain closed before the water started bouncing off of me and outside the narrow confines of the taloned tub.
With that pull, a bunch of the hooks came jumping off of the rod, a leaving me holding half a shower curtain, attempting to keep it from ending up in the bottom of the tub. While trying to hang the curtain back up, the water glancing off me in precisely the way I was trying to avoid, and I am trapped where I am standing because of all of the hair care bottles that I mentioned before. As the steadily splashing stream soaks the previously spotless floor, I am cursing the manufacturer of any and all shower hooks, and then I admit berating Sara's aunt for buying something so ineffective. Why would someone rely on something so insecure to protect their floors from flash flooding?
It wasn't until after I had re-positioned the curtain and actually taken my shower that I sensed that nudge in the side of my brain that said, "Jon, don't miss what just happened."
"God, what are you talking about? I took a shower?"
"What happened though?"
"I got upset by the unsecured curtain hangers."
"Exactly. Go with that."
The more I thought about it, I figured out that we live our lives this same way. We hang our happiness, sense of purpose, and identities on so many things that are insecure: ideas, opinions, and perceptions that are different from year to year, region to region, person to person. "The way I dress shows everyone who I am." "How I eat is proof of how much more I care." "Voting this way is the only acceptable option." Everything is a moving target, and we move so much from position to position that our grip becomes so loose it slips at the slightest jerk (in all its forms, yes).
What if we chose to live different? What if we chose a secure option. I wish Carolyn had for her shower curtain, but even more I wish that she, and everyone else, would choose a better option on which to secure their lives. What if instead of looking to the people (physically or digitally) we have access to for who we are, what if we looked to the person that created all of that.
The God of this world has a very explicit and radical opinion of who you are, and has never changed it. In fact, there was never a minute that he was more crazy about you than during the moment where you chose to do whatever it is that is the biggest regret of your life. The ironic thing is, that exact moment is the same moment that so many other people that have told you who you are abandoned you, or you traded them for another set.
It's time to change your hardware. You need a set of secure hangers for your identity, ones that won't work their way loose. In my experience, they come in a set of three:
1. Begin studying the words of Jesus.
Don't start in Genesis. Don't start with reading the Bible in a year. I recommend starting in Mark. Do a little bit at a time, less than a chapter, so you can focus more on what you are reading and less on getting it read. Most Bible versions have sections in each chapter. Read just one of those "subchapters."
2. Journal what you have read.
Not a huge thing. Not a "dear diary." Write/type the verse out that you read that stands out the most to you. Then write out what it is that stood out about that verse to you.
3. Get a friend that is a (only a little) further down this road than you.
If you skip this step you will burn out and end up right back where you started. This person ideally would become the center of a group of friends that you share your life with (spiritual, home, work, financial, mental, social). You will keep each other securely connected.
It is time to change your hardware. Don't be afraid to make a bit of a mess.
With that pull, a bunch of the hooks came jumping off of the rod, a leaving me holding half a shower curtain, attempting to keep it from ending up in the bottom of the tub. While trying to hang the curtain back up, the water glancing off me in precisely the way I was trying to avoid, and I am trapped where I am standing because of all of the hair care bottles that I mentioned before. As the steadily splashing stream soaks the previously spotless floor, I am cursing the manufacturer of any and all shower hooks, and then I admit berating Sara's aunt for buying something so ineffective. Why would someone rely on something so insecure to protect their floors from flash flooding?
It wasn't until after I had re-positioned the curtain and actually taken my shower that I sensed that nudge in the side of my brain that said, "Jon, don't miss what just happened."
"God, what are you talking about? I took a shower?"
"What happened though?"
"I got upset by the unsecured curtain hangers."
"Exactly. Go with that."
The more I thought about it, I figured out that we live our lives this same way. We hang our happiness, sense of purpose, and identities on so many things that are insecure: ideas, opinions, and perceptions that are different from year to year, region to region, person to person. "The way I dress shows everyone who I am." "How I eat is proof of how much more I care." "Voting this way is the only acceptable option." Everything is a moving target, and we move so much from position to position that our grip becomes so loose it slips at the slightest jerk (in all its forms, yes).
What if we chose to live different? What if we chose a secure option. I wish Carolyn had for her shower curtain, but even more I wish that she, and everyone else, would choose a better option on which to secure their lives. What if instead of looking to the people (physically or digitally) we have access to for who we are, what if we looked to the person that created all of that.
The God of this world has a very explicit and radical opinion of who you are, and has never changed it. In fact, there was never a minute that he was more crazy about you than during the moment where you chose to do whatever it is that is the biggest regret of your life. The ironic thing is, that exact moment is the same moment that so many other people that have told you who you are abandoned you, or you traded them for another set.
It's time to change your hardware. You need a set of secure hangers for your identity, ones that won't work their way loose. In my experience, they come in a set of three:
1. Begin studying the words of Jesus.
Don't start in Genesis. Don't start with reading the Bible in a year. I recommend starting in Mark. Do a little bit at a time, less than a chapter, so you can focus more on what you are reading and less on getting it read. Most Bible versions have sections in each chapter. Read just one of those "subchapters."
2. Journal what you have read.
Not a huge thing. Not a "dear diary." Write/type the verse out that you read that stands out the most to you. Then write out what it is that stood out about that verse to you.
3. Get a friend that is a (only a little) further down this road than you.
If you skip this step you will burn out and end up right back where you started. This person ideally would become the center of a group of friends that you share your life with (spiritual, home, work, financial, mental, social). You will keep each other securely connected.
It is time to change your hardware. Don't be afraid to make a bit of a mess.
