Drain Traps & Humility

I like Saturdays. I like the feeling of having nothing else to do.

However, in my family, Saturdays are not exactly laze-about days. SUNDAYS, post-church, are laze-about days. Saturdays are the days you get done the things that you have no time for during the workweek.

In my case, giving my bathroom a thorough deep-clean.

No, I'm not going to be gross about this. I won't give you the play-by-play of my bathroom cleaning experience. But it did occur to me--especially when I cleaned the trap in my sink--that I think very highly of myself for no good reason.

Not that I'm a terrible unhygienic person. I happen to think of myself as having very good hygiene, thank you very much.

What I'm saying is that it's very easy to become overly obsessed with myself. And not just thinking highly of myself, but also in being ashamed of myself. I just get too focused on that idea of "I" and "me" and what I and me want, need, feel, do...and it comes at the expense of everything else. It's easy for anyone, I think, to become selfish with their time and their gifts and talents and their dreams, until we tend to think of ourselves as being able to do no wrong.

But then...we lift the lever on the sink and pull out that trap, and it's the grossest thing we've ever seen.

And I'm being quite literal, here. I'm not using the trap as a metaphor, per se. I'm talking that you are gross. Those germs are yours. Those hairs are yours. That slime? Yep, yours. It builds up over time and makes it tough for the water to go down the drain, and you end up having to put on some gloves and give the thing a hot-water bath it'll never forget.

Okay, yeah, there is a metaphor there.

Listen, you're not perfect. But you know what? Don't worry about it, because neither am I. This means two things for us, as people. First of all, it means go easy on yourself. You're not perfect. Don't expect you to be. Don't be a slob and leave the drain trap uncleaned for ten years, but don't spend an hour scrubbing it every day. It can be overdone. Let your hair down once and awhile.

But it also means this: Feel deflated. Hold that slime and hair and go...ew. Is that mine? Yes it is. You're gross. But you're also loved by someone, and more than likely more than a few someones. And they love you despite the grime in your sink. Naturally I wouldn't make a point of SHOWING everyone under the sun your gross drain-trap offerings, but know that you have them and then throw them away. You don't need them.

I think it needs to be a bumper sticker, like the classic Christian one. "Next time you think you're perfect, try cleaning the drain trap in your sink." I might make a fortune with that. Or...maybe not. But I can dream, can't I?

You know what I'm going to say next:

Go clean your drain-trap.

-The GLS