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TheDiscipleMD

We’ve all heard of a “power nap”. We have all probably taken one. You know, your running low on energy and so you lay down for a quick fifteen or twenty minutes to revitalize yourself. You don’t really get a chance to go into a deep sleep, but deep enough to gain some energy for the rest of the day. They say successful people do this, which enables them to work longer and harder than the rest. But the other night my wife used a similar term that I have never heard. We were watching television, rather late, when she said to me, “I’m going to take a “power bath.”  “What?”, I said. “A power bath” she repeated. Well I started to laugh. I had never heard such a term. She laughed back and said that it meant it would be “quick but thorough!”

Well, that conversation got me to thinking about the most powerful “bath” a person can take. One that doesn’t clean the body, but one that cleanses the soul; baptism!

“…baptism is the ordinance by which former sins are washed away. The washing in water symbolizes the purification of our soul, just as bathing in water cleanses our bodies from the grime and dirt of everyday living and makes us feel refreshed again. But baptism symbolizes something more. It is the beginning of a new life. Just as the resurrection purges the dross and imperfections of mortality and renews and perfects the body, so baptism cleanses the soul from sin and prepares a person to lead a better, more perfect life in the future. (Theodore M. Burton, “To Be Born Again,” Ensign, Sep 1985, 66).

This “spiritual bath” that some of us have taken, happens only once in a lifetime. So how then can we continue to have spiritual “power baths” on a regular basis. The Savior taught us the way when he met with the disciples for their last meal prior to the crucifixion:

“And he took the bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying. This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” (Luke 22: 19-20).

The Savior taught his apostles how to take a spiritual “power bath”. A modern-day apostle, Elder Dallin Oaks expounded on this subject when he taught:

“Attendance at Church each week provides the opportunity to partake of the sacrament, as the Lord has commanded us (see D&C 59:9). If we act with the right preparation and attitude, partaking of the sacrament renews the cleansing effect of our baptism and qualifies us for the promise that we will always have His Spirit to be with us. A mission of that Spirit, the Holy Ghost, is to testify of the Father and the Son and to lead us into truth (see John 14:26, 2 Ne. 31:18). Testimony and truth, which are essential to our personal conversion, are the choice harvest of this weekly renewing of our covenants.” (Dallin H. Oaks, “The Gospel in Our Lives,” Liahona, Jul 2002, 36–39).

I know a number of people who don’t see the importance of attendance at church each week. And perhaps we are tempted, from time to time, to become lazy in our routine attendance of Sunday meetings. However, as you can see from Elder Oaks remarks, it is only there, in the chapel, at the church, that we receive the spiritual “power bath” that all of us need to continue onward. It is that jolt of spiritual energy that will see us through another week of this life. So remember, the sacrament or as some call it, communion,  was instituted for a purpose; it is the way the Savior provided for us to have the spiritual “power baths” regularly so we can keep clean of this world and rejuvenate our spirits.