What Are you Steeping In?

My British friend with her lovely accent once said to me, “Americans have been putting tea into the water since the Boston Tea party, and from then on they’ve kept right on doing it the wrong way.”

Her sassy remark has helped me remember a tea-technicality ever since. And on more than one occasion, it has stopped me from throwing a tea bag into a cup of steaming water.

Because you see, water goes into the tea to steep, rather than tea into the water.

That growing cloud of dark stain in hot water mesmerizes. I can’t help stopping for just a moment to watch as it infuses an entire pot of hot water. It colors it. It flavors it. It changes it. It becomes not just water anymore, but an indivisible unity of an enjoyable moment in my day.

Steeping tea leaves in hot water releases flavor and nutrients. Steep too long, however, it becomes bitter. Steep not enough, it’s weak and flavorless. Plus of course, different teas steep differently and require various modes of steeping.

My friend would be quick to note this tiny tidbit alone does not actually translate into an excellent cup of tea. However, the art of steeping is essential to a flavorful cup.

And on this cold day, with the steam rising from a “cuppa,” it somewhat reminds me of the saturation of my own inward steeping. For how I’m saturated yields effects. What I put into myself, colors my entire soul.

We steep in a culture similar in many ways to what the Apostle Paul discovered in Athens on a visit there in Acts 17.

While waiting for his friends to arrive, he became acquainted with the city. And what he saw troubled him. It was lined with gods. Many decorated the streets as carved idols, while others saturated the city through new philosophies. Athens was steeped in a petri-dish of outlandish ideas.

“Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.” (Acts 17:21 ESV)

With a heart bothered by all that surrounded him, Paul began to share Jesus in the synagogue and in the public marketplace. Some thought he was nuts,  like someone throwing more notions into an already hot crowded pot, but others believed it to be a curious new teaching worth exploration.

God created us to be searchers. We look for something more, something satisfying. Something better. And unfortunately even in our walk with God, at times we are guilty of looking beyond what God has given us so graciously in His Word, and try to find something more, new, greater.

Throughout life, our souls both search for Him, and run from Him.  

We are steepers. We dip in and out. We linger sometimes where we should, or sometimes where we should not. Activities, thoughts, actions, or emotions swirl into one whole. The culture, ideas, and entertainment I soak in will become a part of my whole being.

Perhaps at times, we steep in things which bring short pleasure but long term dissatisfaction. We scroll screens and compare accomplishments. We end up sitting in waters which infuse the soul, coloring our lives, and flavoring our existence.Throughout life, our souls both search for Him, and run from Him. Share on X

But, there is a better option. God’s Word steeps us with truth, wisdom, peace and joy. We can sit in it. We can meditate on His thoughts rather than ours. We can linger there and train our ideas and emotions by it.

Paul told his spiritual son, Timothy, to give himself to godliness, that his speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, would be woven into the very fabric of his being.    

“Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.” (1 Timothy 4:15 ESV)

Can you see the tea bag in the phrase “immerse yourself in them?” To be “immersed” in the Greek, is to give oneself wholly. Not here and there, bits and pieces, partially, or with reservation. Wholly. Immersed.

We are the same steeping kind of people in our souls as those who listened to the radical preaching of the Apostle Paul in Athens.

What are you steeping in today? Will it help you grow closer to Jesus or weaken your spiritual resolve? Does Christ own and rule over the world’s infusion of thought, emotion, and purposes in your day to day?

Paul wrote to the Galatians,

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV)

That’s some good steeping.

And as I raise my hot teacup of Earl Grey to you today, I pray that the immersion of truth would pour its redeemed flavors from the depths of your souls and color every part of your walk with the likeness of Christ. May His steeped grace spill its fragrant infusion onto those around.