I remember hearing the origin of the saying in the title recently which made me giggle. Thankfully as I was an only child it wasn’t an experience I personally was afforded. But back in the days before electric showers and ubiquitous hot water, when families had the opportunity to fill their bath (usually not the porcelain suites we have today) with hot water everyone in the house needed to use the water. Usually the oldest would use the water first and turn by turn each of the family would climb into the water to give themselves a wash.

Yes, I’m grossed out too.

By the time the youngest of the family came to the bath the water was usually pretty gross, and probably not that hot. So much so by the time the baby was in there the water was so dirty there was the potential of not even seeing the parts you were supposed to be washing below the surface. When all of the washing was complete the mother of the family would come to empty the dirty water out and the joke was that she needed to double check in the murky water to make sure the youngest of the family wasn’t still in there.

Thus the expression “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater was coined.”

I know this is obvious, but what we are saying when we use that statement is – make sure you don’t throw out something that is good, pleasant, and precious, because you are disposing with that which is less good, unpleasant and finished.

Today we refer to that phrase when it comes to many things in life that we experience. If we’ve had a bad experience with a shop assistant in our local supermarket we can be quick to say “I’m never returning to that supermarket, none of those big supermarkets don’t care about us!” In the moment of our complaint a wise friend or family member standing close by might offer some helpful advice by saying; “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Don’t allow the bad experience with that person to completely shape and colour you view of something that is good.”

Silly example I know but we do this all the time.

I’ve seen this happen so often in the church. Because the church is a collection of people, we will find a collection of everything within that. We will find great kindness, faith, compassion, joy and more. But we will also unfortunately find pain, awkwardness, judgement, gossip and more. When we experience the hurt from the later we can react in such a way, because of the shock and hurt we experience, that forms a negative conclusion about this church thing. We perhaps decide that the way the church is operating, working, and moving is altogether. wrong and ultimately is not Christlike. We begin to distance ourselves from any expression of the church and anytime we are close we begin to judge and deconstruct even the most genuine and wonderful expressions of christlikeness.

Should gossip, pain, awkwardness and judgement be hallmarks of the church? Of course not! Are they sinful? Yes, absolutely! But we must be careful that our reaction to these moments are considered so that we don’t throw the baby out because of the murky bathwater.

We must remember how precious that baby is. How precious God’s people are. We must remember how much God loves His baby(s). We must remember that the church was His idea and there is so much good that happens and comes from the church. We must remember that when we allow the bad too much influence that we end up ripping up the good. Jesus reminds us when talking about the parable of the wheat and the tares warns to leave the tares growing for fear in the removal of them that might harm the good crops are growing.

If you’ve experienced hurt in the church or by the church I am so sorry. That was never the design of the church and it grieves God’s heart that you experienced that amongst His people. That is not what He had in mind for His church.

But I would also challenge you to not allow that hurt to form a hardness in your soul or for it to influence you in such a way that you would conclude that the church is nothing but a place of pain. That isn’t true even though the pain is real. I’m not promising you that you won’t experience pain again amongst Gods people but I can promise you that you will meet with Him in so many beautiful ways and that when we partner with something that He has instituted we will experience beautiful blessings in our lives.

So please, if your water is murky today, even if it’s filled with so much dirt that you can’t see anything else, please push in again. Dare to trust, dare to play your part, commit your ways to God and ask Him to move in your life. I don’t think you will regret it – I know I haven’t!