Living Small

Yesterday each of the other two bathrooms was being used for showers. I could have waited, but I thought I could speed up the process if I showered in the downstairs bathroom. So I took my towel and traipsed down the stairs and into the bathroom. As I walked in I noticed immediately that this shower was unlike any I had seen. Along one wall was a tiled trough about three feet deep and four feet long, but only about eighteen inches wide. Along the edge was a plastic scoop. Attached to the wall within the trough area was a flex hose with shower head and small electric water heater. (One of the things that always amazes me in Asia is the proximity of electricity to water in the showers.) I flipped the water heater on and ran some water. The water went out the drain and onto the bathroom floor where it drained slowly into the floor.

It was at this point that the eighteen inch width became more of an issue. I contemplated going back upstairs to wait for a shower to open up but I thought, "Hey, I'm on an adventure in Thailand and I just wrote a blog about things that are different not wrong. Don't wimp out. Go for it." So I climbed over the wall and began my shower.

Even with turning the water off while soaping down and shampooing the water covered the bathroom floor. (I was so glad I had hung my clothes on the back of the door because I hadn't noticed the floor filling up until I was almost finished.)

I finished the shower, waded over to the door to retrieve my clothes after drying off, and began to dress when a niggling idea began in my head. "Since the floor fills up anyway, and the floor is tile I wonder if people shower outside the trough, in the bathroom. It sure would be easier.  Less confining. And it would have the same result."

I talked with Kristi later and after she stopped laughing she confirmed that with only a few exceptions, people shower in the wide open bathroom, not the narrow trough.  The trough is for a scoop shower in which the person plugs the drain in the trough, fills the trough with some water and simply ladles the water onto themselves for the shower.

I also couldn't help thinking about all the times we live small. We confine ourselves to a very small space when God's grace has provided a wideness in how to live in relationship with Him. Oh, there are some restrictions God has revealed that are for our good. But think about it. So much of the life of a Christian is not prescribed. There was nothing wrong with using the trough for the shower. Neither would there have been with using the entire bathroom. It was a matter of preference. Or in my case ignorance. But that's much of the way of following Jesus. Scripture doesn't tell us where to live, what to drive, what to wear. It describes broader issues like stewardship, wisdom and generosity. All too often, I fear, we have allowed our own sub-culture to define how we live resulting in a narrow life rather than looking to Jesus and living in the fullness of that relationship. We may still choose the trough, but we can choose it from freedom not ignorance or fear.  And that would make all the difference in the world.