If you’ve ever used a lavatory with sharpie musings on the walls, you’re in for a treat.
I recently went to a local coffee shop where folks like to lighten themselves both literally and figuratively of the plights of life, while sitting on their porcelain thrones.
Perhaps it’s the flushing away of inner world weights meeting the body’s necessity to mitigate itself, that manifests such wonderful confluence of physical and spiritual relief.
So let’s dive in, shall we? Here are a few insights of our fellow man from the hallowed halls of the waste closet. I’ve selected a few stand out thoughts for your amusement. All expressed quotes below belong to the anonymous contributing authors of the sacred walls.
ON WHAT’S REALLY IMPORTANT:
COFFEE MATTERS.
Hootenany Now!
Sanity is found with joy.
ON POLITICS:
Beto=Handsome Liar
Cruz=Gross Liar
Vote, ok?
ON ESCAPISM:
We tried the world, good God, it wasn’t for us…
ON THE ENVIRONMENT:
The woods are just trees. The trees are just wood.
ON SELF-HELP:
A self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living.—Virginia Wolf
Your here, life exists, and Identity. The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. —W.W.
Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again.
You have value just the way you are.
ON MORTALITY:
To err is human, to forgive, divine.
A Wall Conversation:
IN DOG YEARS WE’RE DEAD.
—In fruit fly years, we’re REALLY dead.
ON EXISTENTIALISM:
If you have nowhere to go, just stay.
Everywhere I go, there I am.
A Wall Conversation:
What can I do to make this life count?
—Math.
Be kind, rewind.
—Be happy. Be grateful. Make the most of what you have. Be kind. Relax.
Give your life meaning: From the Bible. He’s got you. You’re not alone.
ON JESUS:
Jesus loves you no matter what you do. “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 You’re never too far from God, that His love can’t FIND YOU!
A Wall Conversation:
It took Christ less than 3 days to save humanity…how long will it take you?
—He was gone three days. He only gave up his weekend for you, bro.
While y’all were sinners Christ died for us.
—Meh…
It’s f**ked up you need blood sacrifice to feel good about yourself.
A Wall Conversation:
Love God and love others.
—Love
Godyourself and love others.
We don’t have time to unpack all of that. But the premise itself is worth exploring. What compels individuals to memorialize their life ponderings on the confines of their local coffee shop loo? In the midst of politically divided families decidedly not speaking to one another, I’m amused by the anonymous ferocity of beliefs spewed for the public.
I share these discoveries with you, dear reader, with one objective—to expose the inner quandaries of the human condition, and hopefully illuminate you to your neighbor’s distraught life uncertainties.
As Jesus-followers, we are called to be a people neither impressed or intimidated (John 16:33) by the state of human affairs. Rather we are commissioned to make space for our fellow man to express his angst unto God as part of the process of redemption (2 Tim. 2:21).
Allowance and preservation is granted to the psalmist who ejects his soul’s poison to the Lord (i.e. King David). Pointing to the one who honors wild, unfiltered utterances into sacred psalms, our challenge as a nation of priests remains to honor man and woman’s vile purging and lead them in the way of submitting themselves to the one who brings peace to the soul.
As some visiting wise sage poignantly shared on this washroom walls: “Can we not just take a piss in peace?” And sitting on a not-so-porcelain throne, the High Priestly Prince’s gift remains: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you” (John 14:27).
Peace is yours, friends. Now, take a load off.
