unclogging the shower filter

for the past two months, showering has been way less satisfying than it normally is, and let me tell you why: imagine taking a shower in luke-warm water with only six measly streams cautiously leaving the showerhead to feather down your body. it sounds like something you don't even have TIME for. i didn't really realize how different our shower was from everyone else's until i stayed at an airbnb in Miami for a women's conference two weeks ago (more on that later!) and showered in what could have easily been interchanged for a fire hydrant. translation: it was so, so lovely. how i had taken water pressure for granted!

our showering experience for the past two months

several nights ago, we had family over and alexis and i decided to take apart our shower filter to see if we could improve the showering experience for our guests. lo and behold, with the whole head removed and nothing detaining the water, it rushed out much more decidedly! so alexis and i knew that something was going on with the actual head attachment, and upon closer scrutiny, there was a thin layer of dark green mineral backup on the filter's crosshatch (where the water went in), found as well on more than half the tiny water exits (where the water came out). with an old toothbrush and our fingernails, we sloughed off all the mineral backup that we could see. hoping for the best, we screwed in the shower head again and what do you know, there was ACTUAL water pressure coming from the ENTIRE thing! needless to say, showering has been much better since.

forty minutes after we resolved the shower issue, the Holy Spirit spoke and i understood. this was a visual representation of what needed to be done in the both of us: a detoxification, a decontamination, a thorough cleansing of buildup that had accumulated over the past months and years and kept us from letting God flow through us as freely as He wants to. sometimes certain beliefs, actions, traditions, or thought patterns that we incorporate into our daily life and routine can truly hinder the Holy Spirit from moving through us and using us, and the result is ugly. check out what Jesus says about this:

"You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean." Matthew 23:26, ESV

here Jesus paints a pretty clear picture that even if we look great on the outside and appear to have it all together, it's what's INSIDE that counts. if the inside of your rose-gold coffee mug isn't clean, you're going to want to wash it first before you drink out of it. if only dribbles of water are coming out of your sparkling silver shower head, you're going to want to check out what's inside blocking the water before you take a shower (unless you're me, and you're too blind to recognize the problem until someone else points it out!) (yes, i just compared myself to the blind Pharisee, so if you think i am here pointing fingers, i'm mostly just pointing fingers at myself #RealTalk).

this whole process [of leaving familiarity to jump into the unknown] has been a big reset and cleansing for me: spiritually, emotionally, mentally. it hasn't been easy. as the showerhead, i've fought the toothbrush, not wanting to let go of all the residue that's become so comfortably a part of me, even beginning to believe the lie that whispered "you don't want more Water to flow through you, you're just fine how you are!"

but it's time, folks. it's time to forget the lies, the dirt we've accumulated over the years, the opinions of others, past traumas that we've let dictate our present, and allow the Holy Spirit to come in with His plumbing tools and give us a thorough purification treatment, removing all doctrines, actions, words, choices, entertainment, relationships, thoughts, etc. that do not permit Him to flow through us as He has desired. and most importantly? once He's done that - besides being grateful to Him - we should do our best to preserve that new purity that He's given us. if we immediately let those things back in that He's already sloughed away, then what's the point of Him cleaning?