Thoughts from the Toilet

I believe that some of the greatest ideas in history were thought up while on the toilet. Such as toilet paper and probably Benjamin Franklin’s idea for the light bulb; although, his idea for the whole kite fiasco, probably thought up during the middle of the night while he was still half asleep, why he went through with it is a whole other story. Maybe I don’t come up with historic ideas on the small toilet in the communal bathroom of my dormitory, yet thoughts occur. The thought was actually from the Bible more or less, “dead to self, alive in Christ.” 

The thought would be totally random if not for what I had been going through the last few days. I let myself get into a situation where I let myself get into a situation that was fun and essentially not sinful. The sin part came later when I let myself desire something/someone that I knew was not what God wanted/wants for me. It took a couple days of talking myself into thinking it wasn’t sinning and running that into a dead end. Also, making up fake scenarios of how this or that could work, only to end up with the shit hitting the fan in my scenarios. I’m glad God only gives us what we can handle; otherwise my “shit hitting fan scenarios” could have made a stinky mess. 

 

I even randomly saw posts on facebook that related to my sinful desires such as:

“’It’s my own inflated sense of self-importance, the elevation of my work, of my agenda, that keeps me from prayer-communion.’ I turn to face him.
‘That’s called idol worship. I don’t pray enough because I’m practicing idol worship.’”

 –Gwendolyn Post (I change the names to protect the innocent).

 

For some reason I wasn’t at the point to think of myself as an idol at the time, yet it got stuck in my head. There were other posts that referenced Bible verses that made me think about different aspects that will just confused you if you look at it from this side (women’s thoughts are like spaghetti), so I’ll refrain from posting them here. And then I heard Avril Lavigne’s song “What the Hell,” and was singing along and then I thought, I can’t say “What the hell” to God!

 

Just several days ago I remember writing in my journal about how great it is that because of my faith in Christ I have eternal life…so why would I now want to deny God and live for temporary happiness that ends in death?

 

Somewhere along the lines I started putting away my sinful desires, and that’s when I sat on the toilet. “Dead to self, alive in Christ.” The phrase is not straight out of the Good book but it sums up a lot. Jesus spoke about this recorded in Matthew, 

“’If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?’” (Matthew 16:24-26)

 

Also, Paul had some things in Romans to say about this, 

“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:20-23).

 

This whole time I didn’t want to have the desires that I had, but instead of going to scripture to remind myself of reality, I let my desires consume. At the end of the day I realize I don’t need the things that people are striving for in this life. All I need is Jesus (dead to self, alive in Christ). Glorifying God with my life is my greatest goal.

 

Apparently I’m not the only one thinking on the toilet seat because someone else left an interesting facebook post today:

“nothin better than heated toilet seats score” –Gracie Lou Freybush (still protecting the innocent).