I just knew if I gave it some time, I would find a great opportunity to brag about how my husband and I fixed our disposal a couple of weeks ago. All by ourselves. You have to understand something to fully appreciate this victory; we are not handy. I cannot emphasize this enough. Our strongest skills are being able to procure reasonable and competent outside help for repairs such as this. But my handy man had just left my house about 20 minutes prior, fixing a fixture in my basement, I decided I would defer to YouTube and see if I could fix it on my own.
Long story short—I took a lot of things apart and then left for a meeting. My husband came home, inspected my work, put those things back together and christened the pipes with a gallon of drano…Nothin’. We both felt very defeated and dreaded the bill that would come from calling Roto Rooter on a holiday weekend. Good times.
I continued to clean up all the junk I had pulled out from underneath the sink while my husband went downstairs to watch sports. About 15 minutes later, I heard a strange gurgling sound. I ran to the sink and saw the nasty, food-laden water receding and flushing down the drain! I did a little happy dance and yelled down to my husband, “We did it! We actually fixed something ourselves!” Such a proud moment.
This scenario came to mind today when I did one of my readings, which is written using scripture as if God were talking directly to me. It said, “Let Me fill you with My joy and peace. They flow into you as you sit quietly in my presence, trusting Me in the depths of your being.” (Romans 5:13). Before I even got to the end of the second sentence, my mind stopped, hanging on the word “flow”. I thought to myself, “I think I am clogged.” (as with any normal person, triggered the above scenario.) I am like the pipes in my sink. And like my sink, a large amount of crap is clogged somewhere down deep. It’s not a simple fix like pulling out a spoon or dishcloth that has gotten lodged in the disposal.
Some of the blockage might be new, but a lot of it has been building in my pipes for months or even years. It’s good and wedged. When I harbor resentments over what others have done or regrets over what I have done, they can block this “flow” of Joy and Peace that God promises.
Notice how God says we are able to be filled with this type of serenity — through TRUSTING Him in the depths (the yonder bowels of our clogged pipes) of our being. So, in essence, and I hope this doesn’t seem crass, God is our Drano. He is our solvent. A solvent is defined as “the liquid in which a solid is dissolved to form a Solution.” Isn’t that perfect? We have clogged pipes. When we trust God and turn our will and our lives over to HIS control, He acts as a solvent to weaken and dispel those things that are preventing His peace and Joy from flowing freely through us.
Even though I am coming to grips with the reality that my plumbing expertise was not the primary factor in relieving my clogged drains, I can say that my part was crucial to the process. And ultimately, SOMEONE had to go buy the Drano and pour it in.
If we want joy and peace to flow freely in us, we have to turn to God and acknowledge that He alone has the power to unclog us.
But, just like the Drano, it takes some time. It is not immediate. After I had done all I could with the drain, I moved on and started cleaning. And while I was doing my work, the Drano was doing it’s own.
Maybe it’s seems like a stretch for you, but yesterday I was having trouble with this trust thing, so I tested this approach. When I felt overwhelmed and out of control and anxious, I would ask God to be my Drano. To dissolve the junk in me and open my heart. To take care of situations that I was powerless over. It was a good image for me to carry. But now I am faced with the hard truth; I didn’t fix anything. It was the Drano all along.
