Wednesday, October 18, 2006

An Education in Plumbing and Prayer

After my parents left, my squat water heater under my kitchen counter broke. I've got two water heaters, one on each side of the house. The other water heater services the girls' bathroom. My dad and I (mostly my dad) changed out the girls' water heater last summer. I had to change the heating elements in the kitchen water heater about a year ago. And now it's busted.

I put a compression valve on the cold-water pipe (neither of the water heaters had one for some, er, odd reason) when I noticed it was slowly leaking yesterday. And I drained it this morning.

When we get the extra cash, we'll go out and buy another R2 unit for under the kitchen counter. This water heater heats the water for the washing machine, our bathroom, and the kitchen - which includes the dishwasher. So, let's just say we're roughing it for a few days. We stocked up on paper plates, cups, bowls, and plastic dinner ware. We're learning that there is more than one way to heat water.

And I learned something else.

On the first of two trips to Lowe's hardware (which is about 30 minutes from us - and, yes, two trips - I bought the wrong valve the first time [doh!]), I was praying about the situation - when my freelancing money would be arriving, disrupted plans, etc. As I was praying, I was meditating on our Lord's passion and it struck me how insignificant this mess is. Sure it's frustrating and inconvenient, but some people don't have clean water to drink, much less running hot water in their homes. I'm just camping in style, as it turns out.

Trust isn't really trust until life turns south, until you've prayed to no apparent effect. It is at the moment you choose to trust in spite of your circumstances and unanswered prayers that trust is truly born. Trust would be a little thing without trouble.

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