Hotel Showers
It was a tense time, for sure. Just the slightest miscalculation could cause untold pain and suffering. If I over-adjusted one millimeter either way, the pain caused would be intense. Confident that I had made the necessary calculations correctly, I made my choice. Now I had to be extremely precise in my movement. Steady now, turn the knob just so… Aaaarrgggghhh, scalding water! WHY ARE HOTEL SHOWERS SO STINKING HARD TO ADJUST? The shower in my Hollywood hotel room could go from frozen sleet to scalding water if you moved the handle a millimeter either way. I’m not sure what kind of demented sadist designed hotel shower knobs, but he deserves to be beaten with a bath mat and covered with those little bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Why can’t hotel showers have two handles like my house? All hotels seem to have that mutant one-eyed shower handle that each person is supposed to somehow figure out on their own. The markings around the handle don’t make any sense, and offer no help at all. I’ve even seen hotels where the colors had been reversed. Cold meant hot, hot meant cold. Not good.
Why can’t the shower handles be like the ones at home? You know, the two separate handles for cold and hot. Then you can mix them freely to get the right water temperature without using a ruler, a protractor, and somehow trying to remember the Pythagorean theorem.
I like things simple. That may be because I have a simple mind, but I’m okay with that. Simple works, simple is easy, simple makes sense.
To me, being a Christian makes sense, and believe it or not, it is simple. For years churches and Christians have tried to complicate being a Christian, making it into a club where if you don’t know the password and secret handshake you can’t get in. They would look down their noses at “those types of people,” never realizing that those are the people Jesus came and died for. It boggles my mind that some preachers in the 50’s and 60’s used their Bibles as a way to explain racism and hatred. Explain racism using the Bible? No, how about wiping out hatred and racism using the Bible? How about preaching the love of Jesus to every portion of the world, including your inner city? If Jesus didn’t come for all of us, he didn’t come for any of us.
John 3:16-17 says, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”(NLT) I don’t know how good you are at reading, but I don’t see a lot of room for excluding anybody, do you? Our churches need to be open to anyone. Y’all come! Open the doors, start the music and let God bring them in. I’ve never understood the need for white churches, or black churches or any other kind of segregation, I just see the need for loving churches. I see the world crying out for churches where the preacher isn’t afraid to preach the truth, the people don’t shy away from the hard truths, and the world is impacted after church is over on Sunday.
I like what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:1-2, “You'll remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in on God's master stroke, I didn't try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy. I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did––Jesus crucified.” I can understand that, even if I can’t figure out the shower in my hotel room. Simply loving Jesus and his church... Jerry