Absorb

Absorb

Absorb. When you think of this word what is the image, action, or idea that pops into your mind? When I think of the action of something being absorbed I tend to always resort to the sponge method. I visualize this method with me standing at the sink in our house watching John wash dishes while I am drying them. He takes a sponge and sticks it in the soapy water and what happens while he sticks the sponge under water is a squeezing process. That piece of cloth is being held in hot water and compressed at all sides. This is just an understood part of the sponges’ job because if you want to get the most amount of action out of the sponge you have to fill this tool’s voids with different substances besides the normal air. That sponge comes out dripping with nice, clean, and useful soapy water because it was dipped, submerged, and surrounded by that stuff at the point of great compression.

That sponge has no choice but to put out what is put into it when it was squeezed. There is no chance for the sponge to say “Hey, I know I was dipped in motor oil, but I really want this fluid inside of me to come out as Diet Coke”. That sponge is in a way controlled by it’s surrounding when it is compressed, and I honestly don’t think that there is any hope for the sponge to ever change that. If that sponge is dipped into water it is going to put out water; oil puts out oil; coke puts out coke; acid put outs acid. However, the main action I want to examine in this analogy is not the act of what is put out, but I want us to look at the act of squeezing.

The bridge I want us to build here is correlating the sponge to ourselves. So if the sponge=a human then what does the liquid=? How about this:

Sponge=Human So Liquid=Actions

If this does not seem fair then you should go ahead and quit reading because this will be an “understood” relationship from this point on. I will explain my reasoning in detail, but if this is too much of a stretch to read on I will not be offended at all.

Something that I struggled with from the moment I started following Christ at the age of 17 was living a balanced life. When a time of trial would come along I would almost always resort to actions that were not at all the way Christ acted. Well can you blame me?! It is really hard to grow up and go from living in sin, getting instant gratification, having a weird home life, and being abused by your step dad; then all of a sudden meeting Christ face to face and being commanded to live like him without having a strong daily example to lead you. Just a side note:

Strong Daily Example =Dad

I am making a point here, not excuses. I knew what I was doing was morally, ethically, and even biblically wrong. However, what I did not know, believe, or consider was that the actions to make me feel better were in reality leading me down a path making me feel worse. That path I was going down was leading me to my hell here on earth. (“My hell here on Earth” blog is coming soon.) That path was paved with the actions I would excrete whenever I was going through a tough time. I never started acting out in unmoral, unethical, or terrible ways until I felt squeezed (around the age of 12). This squeezing process is what helped me to identify myself as an individual, musician, and human. When I found that identity I pretty much stuck to it through out my life until I was 17. Everybody knew me the same, and I would still say that everybody still knows me the same. If you were to ask one person from the town I was raised in about me the story would probably not differ much from the other people in town. So it is safe to say that the squeezing process is what helped me figure out what filled my life, helped other people know me, and defined me as a person. People don’t watch when your life is normal. That is why shows like Jersey Shore, The Hills, The Apprentice (GO CLINT!!!), or any other high drama reality show exist. People like watching people being squeezed, and then they identify that person by their actions when life is going nuts. I also am a firm believer that you get to know a person best when they are at their worst. I believe that because it holds true in my life.

Tough Times=Squeezing

You see, my hell I once lived in here on Earth is the only hell I will ever experience. I do not have to put up with the pain, separation from God, or destruction that exists here in this fallen world. That sentence is in the correct tense. I can experience true freedom while alive here on Earth through Christ. However, my life was not always a life of contentment like it is now. I had to wake up for months in a row to a person that hated himself, treated himself like crap, and found joy in his own destruction. None the less, now by simply dying to myself everyday and letting Christ take control of my life, I get to experience a taste of Heaven day in and day out. What does it mean to die to self? Well it could mean tons of things, but I will tell you how I live this out.

Whenever I pray, read scripture, or pursue God through serving Him or other people I am excreting something incredible from my life (sponge). Try and think of the water, oil, Diet Coke, or acid that we talked about coming out of the sponge earlier. I picture heavenly things pouring out of my sponge when I am living like Christ. I don’t always feel like swimming around in the type of liquid (or those type of actions). When life is crummy for Christ followers it is really tough on them to be obedient and not live for instant gratification. We see people who are “happy” in the media and we buy the path to happiness that they sell us. Those heavenly pictures coming out my sponge look completely different than what the media sells me, but I admit I still fall for the trap everyday. When I choose to let the actions of Christ replace the actions that me as a sinful human want to trust in, I die to myself. These Heaven images I mentioned earlier include stuff like forgiveness for others, listening to people, racism being trampled in the US, feeding the hungry, helping the hurting, the Texas Rangers winning the World Series, Jerry Jones selling the Cowboys to Nolan Ryan, or Lecrae signing ISEI to be an artist for Reach Records. (Ok so maybe more heavenly than those last few, but you get the point.) You have to remember what I just stated a few paragraphs before this one, the squeezing process is the part I want to highlight.

So when I am squeezed, I end up with true joy when the liquid (liquid=actions) I choose to be submerged in to be submerged in, surrounded by, or controlled with is the same substance or liquid (liquid=actions) that came out of the sponge that we call Jesus Christ. If I want to end up with true happiness then the only way I have found is this: The actions of Christ have to be the actions that I mimic whenever I am squeezed, or going through tough times. The only way for a sponge (human) like me to put out liquid (actions) like Christ in times of compression is to be submerged in Christ’s blood first.