Keep your spade handy

I AM SO SPOILED!  (Whew.  There.  I said it.) 

 May I please explain…?  

As I recall the situation, the laundry was on in the basement, but I kept hearing the sound of running water rather than the typical whirring of the washer.  You know how something in the back of your mind finds its way to your decision-making part of the brain?  My frontal lobe was telling me I should probably investigate.  Good thing, too, since upon inspection it appeared to be raining from the basement rafters!

One of the washer hoses had busted and was creating this interesting, albeit expensive, illusion because it’s high powered jet spray was aimed right at the basement ceiling.  It was one of the few times I’ve been thankful that my “basement” is more of an old-time cellar, so the unexpected hydration was no problem; however, that may have been one of the circumstances (and there have been a few) where the water in the whole house had to be turned off, due to the corrosion at the hose connections.

UGH!!  No water!!  No bathrooms, no sinks, no washing dishes…and on, and on.  I love camping, just not in my own house…oh, the things I take for granted.

The “no-water” problem was just part of the daily desert routine in the

This Old Pipe

I think someone once said that old houses have character.  Now we can get around the word old with synonyms like vintage, rustic, historic, quaint.  But no matter how you spell it, it still comes out O-L-D.  Roof, sidewalks, ceilings, electricity, oh, and let’s not forget the pipes.  Sometimes my vintage-rustic-quaint-historic old house likes to show its character in very inconvenient ways and without much warning.  Like a kitchen sink that refuses to drain—during Christmas dinner preparations.  Or a leaky roof when the snow decides

A clean toast to: Charity Water

I’m writing this at just before 8 o’clock in the morning on a Thursday.  Usually, I’ve been at work for half an hour already, putting on the hot water to serve up some morning tea and kids coming in for various and sundry issues.  But not today.  I’m not ill or injured, there is no snow or ice outside.  No flooding (which is more than I can say for neighboring states to the south!)  Nope, not me.  Got a call around six this morning informing us that a city water main had busted last night (no wonder we lost pressure!) and since our fair town was under a “boil only” ban, school had been cancelled for today. 

Can you hear the children screaming with glee??  (Can you hear parents moaning?)

Clean water—OH! the things we take for granted!  Many, well…most, are not so fortunate.  There are places where people trudge for hours EACH DAY just to provide clean (a relative term) water for

Blogging Blast #1: How well are you “prepped”?

(So just what is a Blogging Blast??— BLOGGING BLAST #1 )

I just received my new official emergency backpack for my office.  (I’m a school nurse, and we try to prepare for the unthinkable, as well as treat headaches and put bandaids on boo-boos.)  I won’t mention where I got it, but I say it’s “official” since it’s bright red and has a cross on it.  Supposedly, it has enough space to hold supplies for three days.  It’s the three days of “what” that gives one pause, and obviously calls for prioritizing what one might need for those three days. (Three days with 550+ middle schoolers….just sayin’.)

Nevertheless, it always good to be prepared.  There’s been a movement about the nation of people who have been dubbed “Preppers”.  I went to one website that offered topics from Hunting and Plant Gathering After Nuclear Fallout to How To Make Garlic Pan Bread On A Campfire . 

I wouldn’t last long….

Still, I admire their

Lovin’ those hot showers!

Water heaters in our town are infamous for only lasting about five years, at least so I was told.  No wonder our showers were cooling off quickly in the mornings!  It had nothing to do with the heating element, but everything to do with the integrity of the container.

We have since had a visit from our plumber.  He knew better than to simply patch the old one.  No, a completely new outfit was needed. 

(It makes me think of an old folk song, There’s a Hole in the Bucket, Dear Liza.  Evidently, Liza didn’t fare too well getting that situation fixed on her own, either.)

Structural integrity is important for more than old water buckets and modern showers.  In the ancient times of the Old Testament, that area of the world could get pretty dry.  And they didn’t have a Lowe’s to purchase a nice hard plastic rain barrel.  Instead, the workers would carve out cisterns in the rock, and sometimes cover the inside with a type of plaster to prevent the water from leaking out.  It was this water that could help sustain them during those parched times.

So it makes sense when God uses the life-preserving cistern to make a point for His wayward children:

“For my people have done two evil things:  They have abandoned me—the fountain of living water.   And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!” (1)

That’s quite a one-two punch.  Not only had they refused real and immediate H2O, but decided to hope for some “better tasting rain water” to come along and try to collect what they could before it all leached through the home-made plaster!  (I guess they attended Dear Liza’s school of water conservation.)

All jocularity aside, this was, and IS, a tragic reality in many cases.  How often to I search for something “better” than what my Heavenly Father has for me, abandoning His presence in my current situation for an enticing present in another.  The promise goes both ways.  His water, His abiding all-sufficient provision, never runs dry, whereas anything else can suddenly and without warning…

…evaporate.

It’s also telling that, in the New Testament, Jesus refers to Himself as “the living water”, which was a statement that not only relates Him to God, but equates Him as God. (2)  This being so, it follows that my allegiance to Him, regardless of my current circumstances, is what will cause the proper outcomes in my (very temporary) earthly existence. 

How much better to rely on the integrity of our Creator and Sustainer to provide what we need when we need it.  When I bring my cup to Him, it will most assuredly, in His time, “runneth over”.  (3)

(Perhaps someone needs to tell poor Liza.)

 

• Jeremiah 2:13 Tyndale House Publishers Inc (2008-06-01). The One Year Bible NLT
• John 4:14
• Psalm 23 KJV

Still pouring….

pixabay

There’s a small(er) town near here with water that, um…smells.  Water isn’t really supposed to taste, much less smell, at least in my thinking.  I would go on record by warning anyone who visits this place to definitely not buy a fountain drink in town.  I am told that our town used to have water-plus also.  Sometime in the semi-recent past, the town fathers decided to go with something called “third-stage water treatment”.  I don’t know what that means, and although I still like to have bottled water in the house when we have guests, I’m definitely okay with drinking our H2O for myself, especially after visiting our little neighbor a few miles away.  Water of course, even the odiferous kind, is life-sustaining. Perspective, I guess.

Water is an apt comparison that Isaiah uses when he speaks of “pouring out that with which you sustain your own life”, as mentioned in last the couple of blogs.  We have important talents and experiences and qualities that help make us who we are, and we need to unafraid to share those when the opportunities arise.  But here’s an additional thought:

Lest I think Isaiah’s encouragement is giving me carte blanche for making my big splash in the world, a cautionary note is in order.  It can be quite tempting, after identifying  what seems to be a special talent or personal  “pearl”, to allow (or even worse, promote) myself as the focus in the situation.  I love the account of Peter and John after Jesus had risen, hung out for a few days and then returned home.  These two newly renewed men were walking into the temple when they saw a beggar, lame and sitting by the building asking for money.   Now lots of us grew up with the Sunday school song that was Peter’s reply, “silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”  And the end result was pretty cool.

But what a lot of us old time Sunday-schoolers might have missed, is actually the first thing Peter said to the beggar.  He said,

“Look at us!”

After which, he proceeded with the other words (although I doubt that he sang them….)  My point is this—the reason for any attention being on me is not about me, at all.  I may have the best tasting, thirst quenching water ever created, but the water itself belongs to the One who created it; in fact, to put it succinctly, Jesus calls Himself the “living water.”  Now, I am to allow myself to be “seen”, which speaks to a certain level of vulnerability of course, but this personal visibility is to be immediately reflected upon God, who alone knows how to utilize the gifts He so wisely puts within us.

So, yeah, bottoms up!