Faulty Faucets

A few weeks ago Joyce pointed to the handle of the hot water on the kitchen faucet and asked me if I had seen how bad it was leaking. I knew it was loose since I had to tighten it occasionally but now it was also leaking all over the cabinet.

Somewhere early in our thirty-five years of marriage she decided that I was Mr. Fixit when it came to things around the house. It is an illusion that I try to maintain by fixing anything I know something about, some things more successfully than others. A leaky faucet was a prime opportunity to maintain my reputation.

On my next day off I went to the store and sought out the plumbing supplies. I knew the problem was likely a worn seal and since it is always good to maintain seals and seats I found the replacement parts for both sides of the faucet, hot and cold. The hot side had always run slow, no pressure, and a plumber had told us that since the line ran under the concrete floor there was no way to fix it. Now it was not only slow but leaking too. So, I thought maybe I should replace the inner workings of that side in case that was where the leak was and save myself another trip to the store.

I turned off the water, took apart the faucet, replaced the parts, and turned the water back on. Whoosh!! Suddenly the hot side was running as strong as the cold side.

“Well how about that!” I thought. It was not a problem with the pipes after all. The faucet was fixed by replacing the old parts with new ones. It was a faulty faucet that foiled the flow!

How many of us are restricting the flow of God’s blessing through our lives with faulty faith? We try to live with it and convince ourselves that our weak faith is normal for us. We try to fix it ourselves by tightening up some habits. Eventually we realize that anything we do is only temporary. This is a work only God can do and only by giving us new inner parts. We cannot change our habits until God changes our heart.

God said, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from you flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26

When God changes us on the inside His blessings will flow.
Bro. Robin

Grits

I stared at the bowl of grits hoping and praying that by the time I lifted the lid they would be miraculously changed into oatmeal. No, there they were, bits of corn meal floating helplessly in a bowl of wallpaper paste.

What a waste of good corn meal! I considered offering cooking advice to food services. There is a way to cook grits that I happen to like.

Take that same bowl of goo, drain off the water, make a log and cool it in the refrigerator. When it is cool, slice off thin slices, dip them in flour, and fry them until you get a nice crispy crust on the outside. Serve the fried grits with syrup and you have a tasty breakfast.

I read about an author from the north who stopped by a café in the south. He looked at the menu and asked the waitress, “What’s a grit?” The waitress answered, “Honey, they don’t come all by themselves.” When God created the world He proclaimed everything good until He looked at Adam all by himself and said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” (Gen 1:18)

We are not good alone. We need each other to be happy. We need each other to see and fulfill God’s purpose. “O taste and see that the LORD is good.” Psalm 34:8

I have friends who like grits any way you cook them. I respect their sense of taste even if I do not share it. I think that this is the way God looks at us. When we are bound together by the glue of His Holy Spirit God looks at us with pleasure and anticipation. He does not look at us as a waste but as a valuable person in His kingdom. He is not looking at me wishing I was someone else. I can only be who He made me to be. I just want to be one of His grits.

Bro. Robin