As a father, I have two young girls. My youngest is just over one. Typically, when I shower, I keep her in the bathroom and she has a blast playing with towels, socks, my pants, essentially anything I've left on the ground. Occasionally, though not so occasionally, she opens the door of our ensuite bathroom and heads into the bedroom to continue her play elsewhere. This is fine except the shower has a glass door and we, like many, have windows in our bedroom...
So, as not to expose myself to the those trying to enjoy a nice leisurely walk around the neighborhood, I leave the lights in the bathroom off. This way I avoid quite literally highlighting my nudeness.
The other day, I was in the shower, working through some issues and mental blocks. For a time, I had been stuck in a pattern of being easily offended, everything was a fight. I knew I was acting childish, but wasn't doing much of anything about it. I've discovered the mind tends to keep the sick person sick, left to itself.
As I'm thinking through this problem, my one year old was playing as I showered in the dim, window lit room. I began to equate the comfort I found in the shower to that of a baby in the womb. Safe, warm, comfortable, and I know when I leave it, I will be in the harsh world cold, wet, and naked. Sounds awful!
My daughter crawled to the bedroom door and opened it about a quarter of the way. She was immediately bathed in golden light. Then clarity hit me.
Addiction, complacency, victim mentality, a spirit of offense, whatever it is that holds you back from real growth, thats your shower. In the shower, we know what to expect, we are comfortable here. My daughter represented child psychology crawling towards the door of change, opening it, and letting the the light of maturity invade the dark. She opened the gateway to relevance, purpose, significance, and the light became the golden path to servant leadership.
She looked back at me as if to say, "Are you coming with me, or are you just going to stay in the shower forever?' The problem is, to reach the light from the darkness we are required to step out from the womb, cold, wet, and naked.
To go anywhere good in this life, we must be willing to bare our naked soul. We must be willing to courageously shiver with vulnerability. We must step out into the cold world raw and fight the urge to turn back to the comforts we once knew.
Before I left the shower, I wrote on the glass, "Step out cold, wet, and naked."
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