My Shower Routine

WARNING – This post may begin a bit weird.

So...the other day, as I was taking a shower (see, I said it would be weird), I had this amazing epiphany.  Well, let me go back a little further to make sense of it all.

During our recent vacation in Maine, Peter and I were staying with his sister and her family.  While taking a shower at her house, I was encouraged to try some of the conditioner that she had.  Now, I haven’t used conditioner on my hair in years but I thought what the heck?  So, I gave it a shot.  I conditioned my hair and my beard.  The results were awesome! 

Once I returned home, I went to the store and purchased the same shampoo and conditioner that I tested in Maine.  And when I went to use them for the first time, I realized that I needed to do something different.  You see, when I take a shower, I have a certain routine...I start with one part of my body and continue in the same order until I conclude by washing my hair.  But now, I am in need of washing my hair first so that I can apply the conditioner and leave it in for the duration of my shower. 

Not a big deal, right?

Wrong!

There I was, taking my shower, I washed my hair, put in the conditioner and started into my “routine” when all of the sudden I stopped.  I couldn’t remember where I was in that routine.  I was completely thrown off.  Had I washed my feet already?  How about my back?  My arms?  Did I wash my face before I washed my hair? 

I was utterly lost in my shower routine and the only solution was to start all over again.

Ok, if you’ve read this far then I’m confident that I haven’t given too much information. 

But haven’t we all experienced something like this before?  If not in our shower routines, in other aspects of our lives?  We go about doing the same thing, day in and day out.  And then all of the sudden, something enters in and causes us to pause.  Some proverbial wrench gets thrown in our works and stops us dead in our tracks. 

If it isn’t happening in our shower routine, how about in our faith journey?  Ever have someone share something with you, a bit of their own theology, that simply rocks your world?  And in that moment we find it very difficult to go forward.  It’s as if our theological feet are stuck and we don’t know what to do.

This happened to me not too long ago.  I was attending a lecture presented by one of my seminary professors, the AMAZING Dr. David Trobisch.  In that lecture, David shared new findings in regard to what we consider our New Testament today and the realities that what we may think we know about it could be very, very wrong.  He spoke of the insertion of the particular books, the suspected authors and the reality that the collection that we use today is not what was originally intended. 

I recall speaking with David in that lecture asking him what I was to do with the information that he taught me while in seminary because it seems I have a new set of knowledge to work with. 

And it is this new information that rocked my world...stopped me dead in my tracks...caused me to pause and consider what I had been about up until that very moment and try to figure out how it is that I am going to proceed.  David’s teaching presented the wrench in my own theological works.

Because of that...I have been digging further into those scriptures, trying to discover for myself how they are to be used in my own faith journey...and then, in my role as Pastor, I’m looking for ways to share that which I am learning (without rocking the worlds of others – although that can’t be all that bad, actually).

I think of those who may have encountered Jesus for the first time and heard some of the things he was saying. 

“Take all that we have and give it to the poor” 

“Blessed are those who mourn”
“This child is not dead, but asleep.”

Really? 

So how has your world been rocked lately?  If it hasn’t, what is keeping that from happening?  Are you not allowing yourself to be in those situations that may make you uncomfortable?  Are you not inviting the opportunities where your own faith, your own theology may be challenged?  Let me be the first to say... that must change.

Seek out those opportunities to be challenged.  Step out of your comfortable theology zone.  Live in such a way that you find yourself growing more and more because of those experiences. 

I can tell you it will be a wonderful thing...

Let me know when it happens.  I want to hear all about it.