Pay Attention to the Symptons!

For months our bathroom sink would not drain.  Surely you have experienced such a thing….you know the scenario….you brush your teeth only to be disgusted with the pooling, spit, toothpaste filled bowl of water.  My not-so-handy-around-the-house husband came to the rescue with a ginormous bottle of liquid Drano.  Sure enough….it did the trick.  For a while, that is.  Then, before we knew it….there was the nasty filling up of the sink.

Time passed and many other bottles of Drano were depleted and our sink was still stopped up.  No worries!!  We will simply not use the bathroom sink!!  We will use the kitchen sink to brush our teeth and do whatever else we might need a bathroom sink for. 

Problem solved!! Until we noticed the black goop backing up in to our never used, humongous garden tub (and I know why they call them garden tubs….because for the non-bath taker….it takes up way too much space and would be better served as a garden!!  In the back yard!!)  Disgusting.  Yuk.  What to do???

We decided it was time to call the plumber.  After all….why call the plumber when you can use the kitchen sink??  Right?  However, this new dilemma caused some concern.  Mainly because this garden tub is the size of a garden and I cannot reach to the bottom or to the other side where the faucets are to clean the worthless pit!!  In fact, for years, all I have done is dust it!!  With a long stemmed duster, of course! 

So, the plumber is called—the nice lady on the phone duly noted in their system that we have a clogged sink and to please bring unplugger tools. Simple problem.  Simple solution!

Come to find out…we have a much bigger issue than a plugged up drain.  Oh yes we do!  The plumbing under our kitchen sink is missing about 10 to 12 inches of pipes!  Yep!  All of that tooth brushing spit was going right underneath our house in the crawl space. (many Indiana homes have crawl spaces…if you need to know what that is….I am sure you can google it)….not to mention everything else that has gone down our kitchen sink and garbage disposal for who knows how many years!!  Yikes!  Yuk!!  Double Yuk!  Everything that went down our drain went underneath our house instead of out to wherever things that go down drains are suppose to go!  Nice huh?

But that’s not all….oh, no….there’s more!  The same ‘issue’ was found in the bathroom plumbing!!  More pipes that are not connected!!  What in the world??  How does that happen?  How did we not know it was happening?  Why didn’t we do something about our stupid drain sooner and found this out?

My Lord taught me something very significant as I wrote the ginormous check to the very happy plumber who replaced ALL of our plumbing throughout the entire house.  Things can seem fine but they really are not.  Our drainage issue was a warning that something was not right…something very big….but we ignored it.  Lived with it.  Did not deal with it….and lots of damage was incurred because of it.

Many of us look like everything is fine.  Act like everything is fine.  All of the while ignoring the symptom/s that is indicating something is definitely not fine.  Ask the Lord to show it to you.  As painful and costly as it might be to ‘fix’ the issue/sin….it will be worth it!!

In the process of determining what was wrong, they also discovered lots of water damage in our bathroom and had to tear out lots of the tile around the dearly unbeloved tub.  1-800 water damage came in and destroyed our bathroom in order to dry it out.  Lots more money and lots more time.  Oh, and the floor?  What we thought was tile all of these years, discovered it was peel and stick tile that was grouted over the seams!!  What in the world??  Faked us out that’s for sure!! 

 

Once the new plumbing was in and the drying out was completed….we could then put the bathroom back together.  Here’s what the Lord allowed us to do.  Get rid of the unbeloved garden tub and replace it with a beautiful shower!!  We replaced the old shower with a much needed closet!!  And we now have double sinks!!  Yes!!  No more pushing and shoving and spitting on each other!!

Oh my friend….what started out as a disaster many, many months ago….is, as of just last week, a beautiful new remodel!!

 

Don’t ignore the symptoms that something is wrong with your marriage, your children, your ministry, your health, etc.  (Don’t be paranoid either….be wise).  Perhaps the Lord is wanting you to look beneath the surface and see the Truth about things.  Don’t be afraid of the truth…remember, the Truth sets you free!!  AND He is in the remodeling business!!  He wants to take marriages and children and ministries and all of it and make it look like Him!!!  Beautiful! 

It might take a little time.  It might hurt for a while.  And it might cost you something.  But it will all be worth it!!!