Author: Anne Marie Miller

reflection #3: washed away

i think in some of the comments in previous posts, people have said they don’t like taking baths because in essence, you’re sitting in a pool of your own dirty water. i agree. completely. which is probably why i haven’t taken one in 3 years AND why i showered after the bubble bath.

as i let the water out of the tub, my feelings of baths were only confirmed by the ick left after the water had drained.

“all that was on me?” i wondered as i looked down at the bottom of the tub. personal hygiene is pretty important…even with my daily habits, i still had all this dirt left on me. turning on the shower, i watched it all wash away…never to be seen again.

i thought i was pretty clean, pre-bath. i do shower every morning, so how could i not be? well, i was wrong. and many times in my life, i’m operating in routine mode, my spiritual disciplines often becoming spiritual to-do’s which i must check off. dirt slowly and discreetly collects on my soul, and in my mind.

it’s still mind-boggling to me how we are promised are sins are removed as far as the east is from the west, never to be seen again. taking the time out to sit and soak and i guess really clean off was essential. it revealed the dirt i didn’t even know was there. but with a quick shower to rinse down all the ick, i never had to see it again…and in my spiritual life, i know his forgiveness is like that final shower – cleansing, purifying, and recharging.

[the end]

reflection #2: warm water cools

japanese relaxation theorists think the ideal temperature for a bubble bath is 100-104 degrees fahrenheit. i am thinking mine was closer to 400 degrees, as my skin went from its normally pasty white to a lobster red fairly quickly. a little too hot.

i let some of the more scalding water out and turned on the faucet to straight cold water until the water was no longer boiling. however, for some reason the cold water wouldn’t turn all the way off, and trickled down the place where i laid my feet.

instead of being a normal person and putting my feet back in the comfortable, bubbly water, i kept my feet set underneath the faucet, allowing my senses to feel the tension between the warm water which enveloped most of my body, and the chill of the cold water which trickled down my toes.

just like this little sensory experiment, it is so easy to want to be surrounded by the warmth and peace all the time. in our spiritual lives, oswald chambers refers to it as the mountaintop experience. god’s presence is completely felt and seen. we are enthralled by his beauty and our hearts leap knowing we’re safe. i’ll let ozzy take it from here in a beautiful description of the warm water…and the cold –

After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they really are, where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation that we find our true worth to God – that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at some heroic level of intensity, simply because of the natural selfishness of our own hearts. But God wants us to be at the drab everyday level, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship with Him.

eventually, my bubblebath would have gone cold, and probably a little sooner than i would want assuming the cold water would have kept dripping out of the faucet. and a lot of the time, i’m not on that mountaintop. but where it’s a little colder in the valley, a little foggier, a little less pleasant…this is the place where the father truly works through me…and in me.

so, the reason i wanted to know how many guys vs. girls read my blog was so i wouldn’t be surprised how much my readership might drop this week. :) i understand reflections from a bubble bath isn’t the most masculine sounding title…

the last time i had a good, relaxing bubble bath was june 2004. three years is far too long, so i put most of our candles in the bathroom, poured in the bubbles and put my iPod on a sigur ros playlist. after relaxing a bit, my mind started to wander. the next three posts will be about the three things i learned amid the bubbles.

reflection #1: we are meant to float
as i slowly became less aware of my surroundings, i noticed my arms went from two, dead-weighted limbs at my side to floating on top of the water. remembering that humans float naturally, i tried to see if my legs would do the same (thank goodness for large, garden tubs). sure enough, the more i would breathe, release tension, and relax, the more my body would begin to float to the top.

however, i started thinking about the process. i would try and mentally force my body to float, but would actually begin to slowly sink instead. it was only when i truly let go of my muscle control when i would start floating again.

lesson learned? we are meant to float; only the support of living water holding us in place. the more we try and do things our way, the more we sink…and even when we try to make ourselves float, we are unsuccessful.

we must completely let go in order to experience the movement, motion, and freedom floating brings.