On Fixing the Toilet

My toilet has been messed up as of late. I actually discovered that it was not working correctly on Saturday when my friend came over and had a more-than-slightly embarrassing bathroom visit (but that is another story in itself.....). It turns out that my toilet fills itself up with hot water after every flush. Yep, hot water. Only the best for me and Spider-Man (please see On Peter Parker and the Bathroom).

So, you ask, why worry about the toilet in the first place? Well, running hot water to a toilet isn't exactly a very efficient use of energy (although it does keep the toilet seat nice and warm....). Since it costs money to heat the water, we're in fact literally flushing money down the toilet.

So, we called the plumber to come and take a look at it. He was your typical plumber, in all aspects of the word (let's just say that he did not even have to bend over for the familiar plumber-related phrase to be realized...). He took a look at the toilet and said we had a bad valve, so he replaced it. But, that didn't fix the problem. In fact, he said, the problem did not lie with the toilet itself. The water lines had somehow gotten crossed, and the hot water line was running to the toilet instead of the cold one. Not a good thing.

You see, for all you non-plumbers out there, you can't just fix the problem right then and there. There are two options. We either have to 1. crawl under the house to see if we can get to the lines or 2. bust open the wall to get to the lines. Let's hope option 1 works, but we'll have to wait and see.

Through this ordeal, I was reminded of a couple of things. First of all, I like my bathroom a lot (again I refer you to On Peter Parker and the Bathroom). Secondly, and more importantly, God works a lot like a plumber does.

I have no clue when it comes to plumbing. I can flush a toilet. I can clean a toilet. I can even fix a chain on a toilet, but that's about it. When my toilet fills up with hot water and there's a broken valve in the mix, I have no clue what in the world to do. I'm in above my head, and that's when the plumber comes in.

Sometimes in life, we get into some "hot water," so to speak. We can't fix the problems that we get ourselves into. We may think we know what's going on, but when our lives start to fall apart, we realize how helpless we really are. We are in above our heads, and that's when God comes in...or at least that's when we let him in.

You see, in fact, God has been standing there all along, always present and always in control. We just try to take care of our own situations too much and never give him the chance to work. And more times than not, we end up in as big of a mess as if we'd tried to fix our own toilet (pun intended).

I'm thankful that God is always there for me. I'm thankful that he wants to be involved in our lives and takes care of us in our times of need.

I'm also thankful for the plumber who took care of my bathroom problem today.

I just wish he'd worn a belt....