Day Soap and Night Soap ~

I have tried a lot of soaps in my time. Facial Cleansers you might call them.  I've tried the really expensive kinds and the regular kinds and I've even tried the generic, off-brand kinds. You know, the ones that are supposed to be the same as the name-brand but the bottle usually has a really plain black-and-white label.  I've fallen for everything when it comes to cleansers for the face.  I've used the ones that burn like the dickens, the ones that smell like medicine, the ones that have moisturizers built right in.  I've tried them all because I have what you could call problem skin. My skin makes lots of oil which traps lots of dirt which leads to blackheads and pimples. On parts of my face, the pores are the size of manholes.  Ok, actually, I've seen a lot worse skin than mine but it is my skin so it makes it seem worse to me. Thus, the reason I have tried every cleanser known to mankind.

Recently, I found a new new one that is supposed to be used when you go to bed at night. It is purple and the smell is soooo soothing. The claim on the bottle is that it is full of elements that will relax you and send you off into a night of relaxing sleep.  I used almost the whole bottle before I determined that it had not, nor would it ever create a calming atmosphere for me in which to fall asleep.  So then not so long after that, I found another one.  It was orange and had little orange beads floating around in it.  The bottle claimed that when one used this cleanser, they would immediately be awakened with a burst of energy so that they could face the day. Well, if I wasn't going to get a good night's sleep as that other soap had promised, then I definitely needed a burst of energy the next morning!  So I bought that one too.  The rationale was that I would use the orange one in the morning and use the purple one at night until it was all gone. (I've never been one to waste anything).  However, as I was reaching for the orange bottle one morning, it slipped right out of my hand and landed on the floor where the spout promptly broke off.  I was disappointed because there was at least 3/4 of a bottle of it left and I had no way to get it out unless I took the lid off and pounded on the bottom until it came out.  I didn't have the energy to do that every morning - that IS why I bought the soap in the first place - to get more energy!  But then I spied the purple one, which had only about 1/4 of the soap left in it.  Now, I'm no math whiz but it doesn't take a genious to figure out that 3/4 + 1/4 = 1 whole!  So, feeling like I had won the lottery, I combined the two bottles of soap and ~ voila! ~ I had a whole bottle of brand new soap with a workable spout! 

That's when it hit me.  When was I supposed to use the cleanser? Now there were both day and night formulas in the one bottle.  If I used it in the morning would it put me to sleep? Or if I used it at night, would it keep me awake? Or would I stay awake only 3/4 of the day???  I didn't know, so I decided to jump right in and try it.  I picked up the bottle and noticed right away that the color was horrible. Orange and purple do not mix to make anything very pretty.  It was greyish-brown with a little orange bead floating here and there.  While that wasn't too appealing, I had to wash my face with something.  So I pushed the pump and a rubbed my hands together and brought them to my face.  I don't know who else is in this boat, but I was blessed with a very keen sense of smell.  The aromas of relaxing lavender and energy-bursting orange just do not quite go together.  It wasn't a horrible smell, but it wasn't good either.  It was more like... well, confusing.  It didn't make me want to throw it down but it did make me somewhat uncomfortable using it.  The whole facial cleanser thing was just very unsettling.  And that is when a fragment of a scripture shouted in my mind:

"What communion has light with darkness?"

That is all I could remember at the moment but I made a mental note to look into it later.  As confusing as this soap ordeal was, there had to be something more to it than just soap, or which soap to use for day or night. So as soon as I could, I looked it up.  The whole scripture in context goes like this:

2 Corinthians 6:14, 15 (NKJV) 14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial (Satan)? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?

It came to me then that God was reinforcing something to me by using a practical illustration, something that I had known all along.  God has a way of doing that because he knows where my mind will go before it quite gets there.  I had been contemplating something but when I read this scripture, probably for the umpteenth time, the struggle fell away and a peace settled within my heart.  I had done the right thing this time!  I had rejected the thing that had no fellowship with God, it had no place in my life.  If I let it in my life, it would vie for position of first place and I knew that Christ would not share that spot.  It wouldn't be like the day soap and night soap, competing with their colors and smells and little orange bursts. It wouldn't be just uncomfortable and confusing. It would be much more serious and devastating.  Maybe you are laughing and maybe you are thinking that this soap thing is a stretch of the imagination. God uses whatever He needs to use to get our attention. This time it was facial cleanser and this time it worked.  And just in case you are wondering, I continue to use that soap because I've found out that it works pretty well for my skin and also serves as a gentle daily reminder for my spirit.