Soaked

OK, So…I have written about 146 blogs since this Leukemia nonsense began. When I was in the hospital or just sitting around my house recovering from chemo and preparing for the next round, I had blog ideas rolling through my head at all times. I couldn’t write fast enough to get them all out of my head, so now I have a problem: I can’t remember if I have already talked about what am getting ready to talk about. I know I wrote it in my head, but I don’t have time to read 146 blogs to see if I actually wrote it out. Therefore, if you start reading and realize you’ve heard this all before—feel free to move on (because, God forbid, we read anything more than once to help it soak in). 🙂

Speaking of SOAKING…this word has been marinating in my mind for about 5 years. I really wanted to write about it back then, but really, who would read it? (I’m not 100% positive anyone is reading what I write now, either, but I like to pretend they are). This idea of soaking came back to me the day I was finally released from the hospital after my last round of chemo. All I could think about was taking a nice, relaxing soak in my own bathtub. My body ached and I felt like soaking in the tub would soothe the soreness.  

I used some epsom salt that someone gave me, specifically designed to help my body detox as I bathed in it. This triggered my brain to recall all the other types of soaking we do. Think about it: we soak clothes to get stains out (especially stains that are red, like strawberries, ketchup, red wine, tomato sauce and blood), we soak our feet to slough off dead skin and get relief, we soak meat to marinate and enhance the flavor, and my most favorite type of soaking—soaking dishes. This came in very handy as a teenager on kitchen duty. My mom would tell me I hadn’t finished the dishes yet and I would inform her that the pans were “soaking”. The strategy was that it might “need” to soak all night and then my mom or another sibling on kitchen duty would actually have to wash it the next day. Ingenious! Now my husband tries to use this on me! He has no idea who he’s dealing with. I invented the soaking strategy!

Sometimes, like the day I got out of the hospital, and many days since, I long to just soak in the presence of God. To let His Spirit do in me the things soaking in Him does: relieves soreness, extracts toxic thoughts,  soothes my body, marinates my heart, enhances my character, softens my crusty edges, sloughs off deadness, and most of all—eliminates the “hard to get out” stains on my soul. A few synonyms for soak are to penetrate, infuse, immerse, steep, drench, or saturate.

The idea is that if I soak before God (this will look different for everyone, but prayer and reading and meditation are good places to start), He will soak (read: infuse, immerse, steep, drench, saturate) into me all the beauty that is in Him.

I am made in His image and His desire for me is to live that out. I can only do this by humbly laying myself before Him — soaking up all that He is and wants to instill in me. It is supernatural and natural at the same time. I’m not trying to tell you what to do, but I do believe He’s drawn you a bath….