Having noticed some looming mould on the ceiling of my shower, and after repeated pestering from my parents (aka my landlords), I decided to do something about MouldGate. So, with mop in hand, I ventured into the shower room. Firstly, apparently showers need cleaning - despite the fact that they are covered with water on a daily basis. Secondly, amazingly – amidst being showered by water in the cubicle fully clothed (because who knew showers were wet?), I learnt some important spiritual lessons. You might call me a modern-day Brother Lawrence. Or you might not.
LESSON ONE: When you start looking for mould, you find more mould. I think I must never have looked upwards in the bathroom before. I guess this kind of makes sense; there is nothing on the ceiling that would attract my attention. If I had, I would certainly have noticed the little black blobs of mould appearing across the ceiling at an alarming rate. Once I did look up and start to scrub away at the mould with a scourer, while being partially blinded by mould scrapings – I discovered more and more. I became a super mould cleaner, scraping every little last bit of the unhygienic enemy away. And this got me thinking: I wonder if there is mould growing in my life, in areas that I just don’t look at? This undetected beast has the power to grow and spread at a surprising rate – are there areas of my life where little black blobs of mould are being allowed to grow? A worrying thought.
LESSON TWO: The longer the mould has been there, the harder it is to get off – and the more likely it is to leave a mark. Moving on from the ceiling, I turned my attention to the piping. (To the untrained reader: this is the squidgy stuff that lines the gap between the bath and the wall, or the shower tray and the wall.) However hard I tried, I couldn’t get rid of the mould on the piping. It was embedded too deeply, and the nature of the squidgy stuff from which it was made meant that the black scar stuck. The only answer to my predicament? Phoning my dad. The outcome? Not good. The current piping has to be peeled off and entirely new piping installed. It seems that the deeper the mould’s impact, and the longer it has been allowed to fester, the harder the task is of removing it. Going back to the mould in my own life – whether it is unchecked sin, pride or small bitternesses that I have allowed to set in – the longer I leave it, the harder it will be to tackle it. The larger the overhaul that will be required to deal with it, and the more likely it is that it will leave a scar. God is able, but what can I do to deal with these things fully today, with spiritual scourer in hand?
LESSON THREE: It only takes a little work each day to keep the major mould at bay. Possibly the most disappointing of all is the fact that this mould-situation could have been so easily avoided. That if I had simply followed my father’s wise advice and invested in some Mr Muscle (or similar) shower spray, then no mould would have developed. The daily routine of ‘spraying after using’ the shower would have ensured that none of the big bad mould had its way. Going forwards, I shall invest in said shower spray, with the hopes of never getting into this holiday-clearing-of-mould situation again. Equally, if we do our daily ‘spiritual clean’ (whether it be reading our Bibles, praying, worshipping God, or some other relevant spiritual metaphor), then the mould will not be able to set in, and leave a deep scar.
Thus ends this shower-cleaning lesson.
Phoebe Thompson is the deputy editor of Youthwork.
