Remember that vintage commercial \u201cCalgon, take me away?\u201d The commercial shows an irritated woman with a newsreel playing in her head of her plight: the traffic piling up, the boss yelling, the baby crying, and the dog barking. She exclaims: \u201cThat does it! Calgon, take me away!\u201d The next scene is of her in a soothing, bubble-filled tub. The narrator speaks: \u201cLose your cares in the luxury of a Calgon bath. Calgon softens the water to leave skin feeling silky smooth as it lifts your spirit. The soft, luxurious, fragrant world of Calgon.\u201d And with a smile on her face, the woman says: \u201cI love it!\u201d And the narrator finishes with: \u201cPamper yourself with a Calgon bath. Lose yourself in luxury.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was amused as I watched the commercial again online. This may be TMI (too much info), but I have never taken a bath in this home though it has a lovely garden tub separate from the shower. I\u2019m a \u201cshower\u201d kind-of-girl. I\u2019d like to say in my prim and proper Christian-ese words: \u201cI don\u2019t need a Calgon bath to take me away from stress, worry, concern, and weariness. I\u2019ve got Jesus!\u201d
But let\u2019s be real. In the nitty gritty of life \u2013 whether you have two high energy children like I did who seemed to thrive on torturing each other or a dog that peed yet again on the carpet or a boss who gave me another task though I was already loaded up with a week\u2019s pile of work or a family crisis or another stress and concern like a MOVE across the state that I am involved in right now \u2013 we DO need stress-relief!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Mark 6, we read that the apostles gathered around Jesus, and told Him all that they had done and taught that day. I think they were actually saying \u201cCalgon, rather, \u2018Lord, take us away!\u2019 because they were weary and needed rest. And Jesus\u2019 response? \u201cHe said to them, \u2018Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.\u2019 For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus craved deserted places but rarely found them because He was always being pursued by the crowds who had big-time needs. Just imagine \u2013 leprosy, demon-possessed children, blind, lame, poor, needy, and even dead children. I think about us and our pampered and blessed lives, but God doesn\u2019t say \u201cShame on you\u201d for our whining and complaining about our stuff being too much to bear. He takes us by the hand and says to us, like He said to the disciples: \u201cCome away with Me!\u201d \u201cCome to me all you who are weary and heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.\u201d (Matthew 11:28)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
THAT is the \u201cCalgon\u201d experience we can have 24\/7 each day. An added bonus to spending time with Him, in conversation with Him and in reading His Word to revive and thrive, is this scripture that tells us to “put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.\u201d (Isaiah 61:3) That scripture of itself just might be our \u201cCalgon, take me away\u201d experience. Topping it all off with putting on a garment of praise that will remove the spirit of heaviness and frustration and weariness.
Dear JESUS, thank You for your abundant grace. Thank you, that at a moment\u2019s notice, I can steal away to a \u201csecret place\u201d with You and be refreshed, revived, and restored. I lose my cares in the luxury of your amazing grace and my spirit is lifted. I lose my cares in YOU! Amen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Remember that vintage commercial \u201cCalgon, take me away?\u201d The commercial shows an irritated woman with a newsreel playing in her head of her plight: the traffic piling up, the boss yelling, the baby crying, and the dog barking. She exclaims: \u201cThat does it! Calgon, take me away!\u201d The next scene is of her in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19752,19749,19751,19750],"tags":[333,1210,9561,1769,4329,12388,19748,19744,9187,40,19747,19741,19742,124,19743,9190,12414,19745,19746,924],"class_list":["post-13833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bath","category-calgon","category-commercial","category-pamper","tag-amazing-grace","tag-blog","tag-calgon-take-me-away","tag-christian","tag-come-away-with-me","tag-commercial","tag-desert-places","tag-garden-tub","tag-garment-of-praise","tag-inspiration","tag-leisure","tag-luxury","tag-pamper-yourself","tag-secret-place","tag-shower","tag-spirit-of-heaviness","tag-stress","tag-stress-relief","tag-take-me-away","tag-worry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13833"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13840,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13833\/revisions\/13840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}