For All You've Absorbed

Are you an over-absorber of everything around you in life? Aubrey Sampson’s words may be just what you need.

Elisa

For All You've Absorbed: Blessed are you, sponge-hearted one

By Aubrey Sampson

Let’s talk sponges.

A few years ago, my husband, Kevin, started buying these really good sponges, Scrub Daddy and Scrub Mommy. (Thank you, Shark Tank!) Sponges—even good ones—weren’t designed to hold water forever. A sponge that’s never wrung out becomes heavy. It smells funky. It loses its purpose. It can’t absorb anything new.

It’s not a perfect metaphor, but perhaps you find yourself holding the weight of something that was never yours to carry. No one asked if you had the strength to hold it. You never even thought to ask yourself.

Here’s my guess … you carried it well, didn’t you?

That’s the thing about absorbers - we are so dang good at the job.

We stay when others leave. We show up to hard conversations. We do others’ emotional work for them. We absorb shrapnel. We hold it in our bodies. And we start to believe that’s good, godly even. We start to believe that love requires this of us. We start to believe we were designed and destined to be sponges.

Can I just say? It’s okay if you need to wring some stuff out.

You needing a break from all you’ve been carrying; you pausing a moment to breathe or differentiate, or release it all — this does not imply that you’ve failed at compassion or empathy or leadership or parenting or your calling. Do you know what it means?

It means you’re human and you’ve held more than you are meant to.

So, blessed are you, sponge-hearted one. You have retained what others could not. Now, may you wring out all you’ve been absorbing, especially what is not yours to carry, to the One who has the unending capacity to hold it.

"Pile your troubles on God’s shoulders—he’ll carry your load, he’ll help you out. He’ll never let good people topple into ruin." -Psalm 55:22 (MSG)

Used with permission of Aubrey Sampson. First published on Substack: The Louder Song.

Aubrey Sampson is an author, church-planter, teaching pastor, and podcaster, passionate about walking with those who wonder if God is there in their grief and pain. She lives and ministers in Chicagoland. Connect on Substack at aubreysampson.substack.com or on her website at aubreysampson.com