Messy Monday: The Bathroom Sink

The first time I noticed the bathroom sink draining slowly, I saw it as a minor inconvenience. Older home, older pipes, blah blah blah.

And then my two year old started playing in the small pond-like mass of water that remained in the basin long after the water shut off and it became more of an egregious attack against my motherly sensibilities. How unsanitary, really.

The sink became my enemy. Mocking me. Disgusting me.

We live in a parsonage and it was really just a matter of making a phone call. I talked to the dear property board member who is talented in all sorts of fixings of things. He took a look at it as soon as it was mentioned, God bless the man, and it seemed the problem went a little deeper than we realized.

He took care of the gunk, but there was more to do, and he did it. He had the tools. The sink was functional once more.

It didn't take too long before I realized that that sink drain just gets gunky with little provocation. It's not dysfunctional, just slow. And it's a couple months and once again I am pulling out the stopper, sticking in the drain snake, and pulling out chunks of black nasty that makes me wish I was cleaning on an empty stomach.

It's gross, right? Messy? Still, as I was cleaning it out this last time, making it functional once more, I sensed an uncomfortable familiarity with its condition.

See God had the tools. He went in and cleaned out this nasty old heart, met the problem in the deep darkness, and gave me back my purpose. The problem is, well, I get gunked up with little provocation.

 And as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.- John 3:14-15

 

 

Ok, so the plumbing version of a snake is a little different than what Moses crafted, but stick with the metaphor, if you will.

 

I can be reading the most brilliant theologians and psychologists, but when I am out of the Word- and I mean just the Word- something is missing. I can talk to the most wonderful, godly friends, but when I substitute their prayers on my behalf for my own prayers, something is missing. All these people gifts are amazing reflections of the Creator to me, but it turns out I need a daily date with The Original.

 

Otherwise, I get worn out. Those minor annoyances that I usually just let float on by begin to cling to me. Enough days and the aggravation gets to me and I don't want to serve my purpose. I stop functioning.

 

Have you ever wondered why you just can't function?

 

Things spew out of my mouth from I don't know where. My patience is nonexistent. Everything is an inconvenience. People make comments that get to me and I get angry. I make excuses, stop caring.

 

Then it hits me like a serpent between the eyeballs. Look and live. The Spirit moves in me and I finally stop resisting and I look in the Word. I am face to face with my Savior, my Sacrifice. And Life Himself gets to work, scraping out the gunk, the junk, the sin that hinders. He makes me new, again, and again, and again. He restores my purpose and I get to live again, really live.

 

Abundantly and thankfully live.

 

And maybe this sink and I aren't quite so much at odds as I thought.