The water in my shower has never been very exciting. In the first place, it’s just water as opposed to something amazing like Hawaiian Punch or warm chocolate. Secondly, the shower head certainly leaves something to be desired when you consider all the possibilities there are for shower heads these days. And then there’s the problem with the water pressure. (I should mention at this time that I’m not one to complain about apartment living. Some of my readers who remember my apartment in Berkeley will not be surprised to hear that the apartment I’m in now is something of a luxury by comparison to other places in which I have lived. Still, the water pressure in this case is so dramatically unsatisfactory that its story is begging to become a useful analogy in some kind of inspirational blog. To this end I have composed this memoir, and while it may be too lofty a proclamation to call it “inspirational,” at least it will have been written.)
As is the tendency in multifamily dwellings, shower water pressure, though it is not usually as much of a problem as water temperature, is becoming an issue in my apartment. As a thrifty and meticulous consumer, I was careful to observe the water pressure in the shower before I signed the lease. Yet, despite all the precautions taken, the water pressure has now all but disappeared. (A wise man once told me that if something “goes without saying,” than I would be better off not saying it. I will, at this juncture, ignore his sagely advice.) It goes without saying that a shower without water pressure is like no shower at all.
I’m not a bath taker; I’m a shower taker. As a shower taker, I long for more than this.
As much as it would be tempting to end this blog here, allowing my faithful readers to glean for themselves the allegorical teaching for which it was intended, I will attend to your heart’s desire and make my point. My point is simply that a life which is lived without the power it was intended to have is like no life at all. We were created, on purpose, for a purpose. Our Creator empowers us daily to attend to that purpose, but if we are cut off from the source of the power, we will be found inadequate for our intended purpose.
I’m not a timid, powerless, undisciplined, loveless shell; I’m a human. And as a human, I long for more than this.
My life must be empowered by a close, working relationship with my Creator. When it is, the purpose for my existence will flow out of me naturally like the water of a beautifully functional shower. Throughout history we have found that those who have walked closely with God have started revolutions, freed nations, fed hungry people by the thousands, provided justice for the oppressed, leadership for the fatherless and the widow, admonition for the unruly, encouragement for the fainthearted and help for the weak. Indeed, this kind of unbridled worship was the reason for which the human spirit was so carefully and deftly designed. We are capable of more than just a slow trickle. We were designed to pour out compassion, truth, love, justice and kindness with the same unrelenting fervor of a shower in a really nice hotel room.
“For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.” – 2 Timothy 1:7