Getting Clean Isn’t Easy

One of the first things they introduce you to at training camp is bucket showers.  So what is a bucket shower?  Basically, you take a 5 gallon bucket fill it with cold water, and use a scoop or measuring cup to pour small amounts of water over your body.  At training camp, the showers were in a small building with six curtained stalls and slatted wooden floors.  Here in India, the showers resemble American showers with the main difference being the bucket on the floor in the middle and the spigot sticking out of the wall.

Bucket showers remind me a lot of the work God desires to do in cleansing us from sin.  At salvation, God forgives our sin completely “For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14).  When we are saved, God no longer sees our sin He sees Christ’s righteousness in its place.  But, God desires that we continually repent of our sin and turn from all unrighteousness.  Recognizing the sin in our life is so critical to turning from it and becoming the person God wants us to be.  When there is sin in your life, you have to be intentional about getting rid of it.  It takes time.  It can be painful. 

When you are taking a bucket shower, you have to be intentional about pouring water over every part of your body.  You have to pay attention to where the dirt and the sweat are in order to get rid of it.  The water for bucket showers is cold.  It can be refreshing after a long hot day, but early in the morning the cold water makes you shiver and want to gasp.  As the cold water runs down your spine or the cold water on your head gives you a brain-freeze you might consider it better to ignore the dirt and wrap yourself in a warm and comfortable towel.  Our reaction to sin is often the same.  When we are convicted of sin in our life, our first instinct can too often be ignoring it.  We see it, but we don’t want to deal with the discomfort that rooting it out will bring.  We know it smells bad, but we would rather be relaxed and smelly than vulnerable and clean.  Too often we ignore the dirt because we don’t want to deal with the pain getting it out may bring.

Allowing God to cleanse our hearts is never easy.  Just as we must be intentional in washing every dirty spot with water from our bucket, we must be intentional about asking God to reveal to us the sin in our life that we may repent and turn from it.  You must search every corner of your heart and seek the wisdom of the Lord to get rid of the sin in your life.  “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Often, when we feel the Holy Spirit convicting us of sin in our life, we want to run for cover or hide in the safety of what feels comfortable to us at the time.  It is easy to prefer the relaxation of the warm water in the comfort of home while the cold bucket shower can seem like an uncomfortable process.  I think Christians often want bask in the comfortable life without allowing God to change our hearts.  It is easy to step into the warm shower of His love when you know you can step out LOOKING presentable.  When you take a bucket shower, you might want to rush through as fast as you can in order to get out as fast as possible.  In order to get clean there is a process.  You have to take the extra time to do what is uncomfortable in order to get clean.

When God wants to cleanse us, we have to be okay with the uncomfortable.  We have to deal with the dirt and not just hope it goes away. 

One of the goals of training camp was to help us recognize any sin we might be carrying.  The teaching at training camp was largely focused on getting rid of dirt in our lives.  In order to be able to serve God well, we must fully surrender everything to Him.  There must be nothing we hold on to. We must throw off every weight.  “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every weight and the sin which so easily entangles and run with endurance the race set out before us (Hebrews 12:1).”  Before we can serve Him in the mission field, we must let go of everything we want to hold onto and trust that He is going to make something beautiful out of us.  We must remember that He who has called us is faithful and that whatever He brings our way will be for more glorious than whatever may be holding us back.