Seven-Day Practical Faith Blog: The Kitchen Sponge Model of Faith

A kitchen sponge offers a lesson for our faith journey.

We've all heard and probably used the phrase "soak up like a sponge." We use it to describe someone who absorbs information easily or readily, or is eager to take on new ways.

It's a fact that a kitchen sponge soaks up more water when already wet than when starting as a dry sponge. In fact, a dry sponge will simply float atop water for a while before absorbing any. Why is this?

A kitchen sponge is typically made up of cellulose (plant fibers). The sponge's pores and fibers are actually water repellent. When slightly damp, the internal surfaces are coated with water, making it easier to attract and collect more water. Think how water drops collect into small puddles when near each other. The same thing happens inside a sponge.

The irony is that a dry sponge is reluctant to absorb water, while a wet sponge is eager to absorb more.

I believe our faith is like this. If we are reluctant to engage with God, we have a dryness about us. That dryness can prevent God from penetrating our souls as much as God would like. But if we allow God to enter our souls, even just a little, then we open the gate for God to pour into us more. Goodness and wisdom have a better chance to stick to us and fill us.

Most of us experience dryness in our spiritual lives at some point. We may wonder where God has gone and whether God cares about us or is speaking to us. But something has dried us out. It could be an attraction to sin. Perhaps a lack of attention to our spiritual side. Maybe talking to God so much that we're not listening. Or the cares of this world can weigh us down and focus our minds elsewhere.

Here's encouragement: all it takes is a little dampness to allow us to absorb God again.

How can we "become damp?" A change in routine. A new song or prayer. Reading a different part of scripture. Talking to someone who has a different viewpoint and is on fire for the Lord. Or the opposite can help - returning to old patterns that worked before. And even silence can work.

Pray that you will leave your dryness and become just a little absorbent. That's all it will take to have God's living water flowing into you freely again.