Hot Clean,Water Shower

Daily Gratitude Year 5-Day 73:Today, I am grateful for a hot shower.

As most know... my gratitude rules include a "once a year" repeat f necessary. For me, the actual exercise of seeking gratitude has been very powerful.  It is easy to be grateful for my coffee every day, and I am. Still, there are so many tiny blessings I take for granted. One of them is my hot water shower.

At my fingertips every morning is a modern miracle. The hot water bathing experience is not a luxury for Saturday night anymore. Thank goodness! I cannot really imagine that. My soul sings each morning as the hot water cleans, energizes and brings me fully awake. It really is a tiny rebirth experience. 

Yesterday is washed away. The steam helps me breathe deeply. The soap scents, carefully chosen or lovingly gifted, fill the air. On mornings I am dragging, I need to remind myself that in an instant, I can be brought back to life through the washing of the water... the hot water. 

In grief... nothing like a good cry in the shower... no one but God see.
In healing... can't breathe? Hop in the hot shower.
In recovery... a hot shower washes the grossness of illness away.
In sleep preparation... it is proven a hot shower helps us sleep better.
In day preparation... the body responds to a really hot shower like light exercise.
In transition... a hot shower after dirty work and before the next event.
In gratitude... each kind of shower is a reason to be grateful. 

Need To Breathe has a song called "Washed by the Water". 
"Even when the rain falls
Even when the flood starts rising
Even when the storm comes
I am washed by the water"

It is a reminder that in the midst of any trial or trouble, we are "washed by the water." New life in Christ, publicly claimed and declared through baptism. Washed by the water. That symbolic "washing by the water" allows us to breathe, the burden of sin washed away.  

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,  who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. -1 Peter 3:20-22

It is a declaration of deliverance from the punishment of death. Going under... a death to the dirty. Coming up... reborn into a new life in Christ. "Born again" has become an offensive phrase to many, but that is exactly what Jesus promises those who call him Lord. 

"as an appeal to God for a good conscience" - seeking his face, claiming his grace but still in the rat race where temptation and weariness are real. We can't be lazy. We must actively pursue Him with love and a desire to learn and know Him more. 

And, we must genuinely appeal to God. Ask him to fill us with his thoughts and his desires so we may see what he sees. Then, we can fulfill the second requirement... to love our neighbors as ourselves. 

We've been walking through Andy Stanley's "Address the Mess" in my Sunday School class. Last week, we learned this prayer. It is perfect for today... and everyday.

"Lord, help me to see what you see and love like you love." - Andy Stanley

The gift of seeing with his eyes and conscience is what helps us love like He loves.  We must learn to listen to the whispers of the Holy Spirit and choose that which honors the Father. 

When we do... there is a feeling of freedom the world longs to buy, but it isn't available in stores, Amazon or any late night infomercial. 

Much to do today. Learning, growing and trying ahead. 

Today, I am grateful for a hot shower... and being washed by the water.