It has been a challenging few weeks for me. It has revealed what I really care about and whose opinions matter most to me, and where I am going in life. One of the things that always provides me with a bit of peace is a good cup of tea. All this tea drinking got me thinking about what I steep in.
The first thing I find myself steeping in is parenting a toddler. My wife and I work (what seems to be) endlessly to form this tiny human into something he can be proud of. I am always working to with him in linguistics, behavior, fun, duty, and all the many things that one needs to be a human. Of course, he is a toddler so we go for fun the most (for my sanity as much as his). I am just constantly worried in what he is being steeped in as well.
The second thing I try to steep myself in is Christianity. I try to be active at church. I have been re-reading Biblical Preaching by Haddon Robinson. I listen to Homebrewed Christianity Podcasts and Village Church sermons while out on walks with the little guy.
Beyond that, I steep myself in college football, video games, movies, news and a variety of other things. All of these things are good things to steep myself in, but none of them satisfies me. Perhaps the goal is not for things to steep in me but for me to steep in other things. Let me explain.
In the act of steeping (tea at least), leaves (the substance) is put into a bag and then the leaves’ chemicals diffuse into the water. In the above examples, I am the water. Meaning, family life, Christianity, video games, college football etc. are diffusing into me. What this action causes is dissatisfaction. I think this is because I want to be diffusing out. Perhaps even odder is it is not me that I want to pass along but Christ. To refer back to the analogy then, I would be the bag, Christ the tea leaves and the world the water.
This is a very interesting analogy because the bag seems rather unimportant yet serves a vital purpose. The bag keeps the drink palatable. Without the tea bag, the leaves overstep or spread around the drink making it difficult to drink. Perhaps in the same way our humanity makes Christ palatable to the world so that he can save it, change it, make it into a lovely warm beverage. What do you let steep in your life? Where or what are you spreading?
