The Drain

While bathing my twin girls after a nice meal of pasta and red sauce and a freshly blown out diaper, I noticed the water getting murky. What started as a cool bath also seemed to somehow miraculously be getting warmer. They were dirty, and I was getting dirty by trying to get them clean. In this water no matter how hard I would try nor how much soap I might add, no one was going to get clean. We had to open the drain and start with fresh water. This is a concious decision similar to one we all face in life when we feel dirty inside and need a new start. No amount of washing is going to remove that stain we have from poor choices, bad habits, and misdeeds, but how do we open the drain on that and start over? In a word - confession - to the one we have hurt, yes; to a priest, you could; most importantly to God. Jesus is on the receiving end of that drain and wants to take whatever may come down the pipes away from us. No, I am not saying he is the equivalent of a sewage treatment facility, but it works kind of the same way. The dirt, stink, and filth of life comes down and what comes out is life giving water. When climbing the high peaks and stinking after weeks it is the same thing. No one will use the old water in the wash basin especially after a stinky teammate has washed his old undies in it. We want a fresh start. Don't just add soap, open the drain and start over for that fresh tingly new feeling.