A Repulsively Disgusting Scum Post

This is embarrassing. I'm hesitant to even post this.

Yesterday I greeted my shower, armed with a bristle brush & soft scrub. The dark grime in the corners had become more noticeable recently. It was time.

What happened next horrified me. Running my hand along the shower wall, it felt rough beneath my hand. Invisible scum... layers of it. Gross. It got worse. As I scrubbed the crevices around the glass door, large black flakes of mildew broke free. Disgusting.

I was utterly repulsed. How this have built up without my notice?

As I scrubbed (and I had a lot of scrubbing time), I pondered all sorts of things about showers, scum, and bristle brushes. Funny as it may seem, I prayed, asking God to use this as an object lesson.

...Bear with me in this analogy. 

The shower is where we find cleansing, much like we find cleansing in the water of the Word (Eph5:26). 

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. Ez. 36:25

If then, the shower is for my cleansing, WHY are the walls and corners so filthy? The scum in my shower built up very slowly over time. With every washing, some residual residue stuck behind. 

I wondered... is it possible that, while my heart had been cleansed particular areas of sin in my life, there could remain some hidden, residual idols? Idols that cling to the sidelines, but just the same, are there, preventing me from fully reflecting Christ.

For example:

• Ceasing to consume unrighteous media in your life... do you still have those CDs, DVDs, games, etc, tucked away in a drawer?
• Ending a destructive relationship... are there notes, jewelry, or trinkets around your home that you haven't yet surrendered?
• Recognizing certain friendships/relationships as destructive in your life, do you still text, follow on Facebook, 'hang out' with them?
• Convicted of immodest clothing... yet are they still hanging in your closet?

These are just a few examples of ways we can be 'cleansed' from sin and yet cling to a hidden idol. As it has mine, I pray this slightly crazy analogy speaks truth to your heart and opens your eyes to personal idols that may be (even unintentionally) hiding in the corners.

So,

what are you going to do 

with those idols . . . 

today?

let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  Hebrews 10:22