- Serviceable
After spending big bucks remodeling our bathroom two years ago, choosing the soap dish didn’t rate high on my list of priorities.
Small, the oval dish sat on a pedestal three inches high. Not chrome like the hardware, nor white like the marble, the plastic saucer’s trim—a vine of tiny, red flowers—was its single redeeming virtue. The floral design matched the poppies in the clock and on the shower curtain.
The dollar price tag lured me more than any other factor.
To my dismay, the dish cradled the soap into a miniature lake at its bottom, puddling the water left on the bar after use. At day’s end the soap swam, and left to its own devices, slowly melted into a wet gooey mess. I frequently had to dump the puddle to keep the soap from disappearing.
I mentioned the problem to my husband who in true guy mentality—I-can-fix-anything-with-a-drill-or-a-hammer—proceeded to drill a hole three inches long and a half-inch wide down through the stem of the pedestal. Problem solved—NOT!
The soap sought revenge. The water no longer puddled in the dish as before, but instead ran in soapy refuse down the inside of the stem, slowly plugging the hole and scumming up the sink where the pedestal base sat. Within a day or two the soap again floated in water, the filmy residue forming a seal worthy of a new brand of resin. Who knew soap had such resilience?
In a similar fashion, our daily routines affect the spiritual stem of our lives. Too much attention to the cares of this world closes off the avenue to the Holy Spirit, wrapping around our prayer moments, and clogging up our day with busy-ness that steals our quiet time with the Lord. Soon we become like the bar of soap, swimming in a sea of life’s leftovers, our pipeline to God plugged by trivial matters.
In Luke 10, Martha complains to Jesus that her sister Mary is not helping her with the meal preparations and serving of the food. Mary has chosen instead to sit at the Lord’s feet and listen to his teaching. Jesus says, (10:41-42 NKJV) “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
I’ve solved the soap problem. All I needed was a sponge under the bar. The soap stays dry and the sponge is handy to wipe out the sink. A simple solution.
Now to fix the business of busy-ness—an hour in God’s Word and time on my knees.