Did Paul Exfoliate?

Ms. Rudy, my eighth grade science teacher, taught me that every day our bodies create new skin cells. You know what happens, right? Shiny, new cells are formed, but are covered up by the old, dull ones hanging on there as long as they can. Oh, sometimes you have an itch and you scratch some off, but mostly they just fall off as new cells are formed and finally push the oldest ones out of the way. It has been estimated that 30% of household dust is made out of dead skin cells.

I personally like to get rid of those dead things as soon as I can. I use a common method called exfoliation. Many years ago, my sister Sylvia introduced me to St. Ives Apricot Scrub. This isn't a commercial or anything, but that stuff is great. All natural ingredients like shell powder scrub against your skin rubbing off all the dead, worthless cells allowing new skin cells to shine. Makes me want to get up and go exfoliate! But first, let me tell you another time I received a good scrubbing.

Once upon a time in a land far away I had the opportunity to visit an authentic Turkish bath, known as a Hammam with two of my traveling buddies, Katrina and Jana. Though crowded, we were the only Americans present and were escorted by our Arab friends, including a woman by the name of Noel. It was ladies day at the Hamman. Arabs are known for their modesty, but the ladies visiting the bath quickly stripped down to their birthday suits. We Americans just couldn't bring ourselves to do that, so we kept our undies on and entered the main room of the Hammam.

Above, I posted a picture of a very nice Turkish bath. This is not the bath we visited. Ours was less fancy and consisted basically of a big tiled room with low ceilings and faucets sticking out along the wall with large buckets underneath. Our hosts had brought mats for us to sit on, smaller buckets, water scoops, towels, steel-wool hand gloves, and rough, black soap. Did I mention that the floor was very slippery? Katrina entered the room with style by slipping and falling on her almost naked bottom creating quite a scene! Picking up Katrina and our pride, we shuffled over to a corner of the humid room.

The faucets poured out either very hot or very cold water; we filled up our bucket to the desired temperature and doused ourselves. We soaped up with the yucky black soap and used the scratchy mitts to begin cleaning every dead cell off our bodies. Then, our Arab friends demonstrated how to really scrub. "Scrub" seems like such a kind word to use. Let me just say this: It hurts. Not a lot, but it hurts. And it is gross. Gross, gross, gross to realize how much dead, yucky, disgusting, worthless stuff you're hauling around on your body every day. Dead skin cells were flying off everywhere! Noel washed my back, head and hair for me with equal roughness. I have never been cleaner in my life. Released from our bondage of dead skin cells, they rinsed us off with cold sweet smelling rosewater. My glowing skin was smooth and shiny. It really was very refreshing when it was all done.

I was thinking about this the other day after exfoliating my face. Even though it hurts a little, it feels so good to get rid of old, dead skin cells. It made me think of a passage Paul wrote to the folks of Ephesus years ago:

"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." Ephesians 4:22 - 24

When I think about loving and following God, about living a more righteous and holy life, I also have to think about those things I have to put off and get rid of, even though it may hurt a little. What do you have in your life that makes you dull and unable to shine for Jesus? Is your attitude negative and grumpy? Are the words you speak harsh, untrue or unwholesome? Are you holding on to anger or bitterness? Have you stolen something that doesn't belong to you? Do you ignore those around you who most need your care? Do you dishonor your parents or teachers? Is your work sloppy? Are you unforgiving?

Before we can reflect the grace and joy of Jesus' love, we must first scrub away our dead, useless selves. This is a daily process that takes a lifetime. I challenge you to read all of Ephesians, or at the very least Ephesians 4. Ask the Lord what part of your old, worthless self He would like you to work on scrubbing out so that His sweet-smelling radiance can shine through.

**Just as a side note, the Ephesus of Paul's time lies in present day Turkey. They had public baths, too and though Paul never talks about his personal hygiene in his letters, I wonder what he thought about when he exfoliated.

As always, I'd love to hear your comments and questions and I'd be honored if you became a follower of this blog. Share it with all the young ladies you know. Thanks, Theresa