Leaky roofs and flooding basements

I was sitting in my car;
In a traffic jam;
On I-435;
In the rain;
In route to my doctor’s office to receive a shot in hopes it would end a long lasting headache;
When Alex called me.
“Dad,” he said, “Our house is about to float away.” That is not how you want a conversation to begin. He proceeded to tell me that the great rain of Tuesday not only was finding its way into our basement, but was also coming in through the roof. The same roof that the roof guy “repaired” three weeks ago and assured me that he “got the leak, no problem.” In other words, we had what experts in troubles, problems and woes refer to as a “double whammy” – a flooding basement and a leaking roof.

Then I really had a headache.

When I got home I discovered that my #1 cherub is not a liar. Our house was collecting so much water—the people at the Schlitterbahn Water Park were calling to see if our place could be their next attraction. It made me long for the days of living in a parsonage. When the roof at the Bad Axe parsonage leaked; and when the sump pump stopped working; and when there were bats flying around our living room; and when there were mice in the kitchen; and when… well you get the idea-- the parsonage in Bad Axe would never have been confused with a mansion. Still when troubles arose, I made a phone call to one of the men of the church and he would come and make all things well. Parsonage living had its advantages.

Fortunately when I finally got home on Tuesday, Alex and a friend had everything under control. The water in the basement was sucked up and gone and there were buckets in strategic places in our hearth room. The next day, the roof guy came out and he believes that both my basement water and the roof leak are the same problem and that he can fix it…. “No problem.” (Haven’t I heard that before?)

In any event, we hope to have a handle on the house that is now a sieve.

Sometimes, like my house, it seems that our problems are coming from all sides. Look down - there they are. Look up and all you see is more trouble. You might feel like you want to agree with Woody Allen who once said, “Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.” But instead of Woody-- I like the way the Message version reads the Apostle Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4. It says: So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without His unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

In other words, don’t look at the size or the number of the problems—look to the One who can help in all things. So don’t give up! Hard times are small potatoes! Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and He will see you through these “light and momentary troubles.”