Failed Septic Pumps and Contentment in Christ
There are times in life when God’s goodness does’t feel so good. These almost always go hand in hand with the times when it seems as if God’s sovereignty and providential control are on holiday. Such a situation manifest itself in the life of our church this very week, but I want to testify that through it all God was good and God was in control and He remains good and in control.
As the Lord would see fit, both of the pumps that service our septic tanks ceased to work at some point in the past. Additionally, the septic alarm that is designed to make a horribly loud sound to draw our attention to the inoperable pumps was also not working. With this triple mechanical failure, it was only a matter of time until the tank contents backed up and entered our building.
Certainly, this is a bad situation that will not be inexpensive to deal with. It will take a lot time from many people to work through and it will cramp our style and impact how we normally do business throughout the week at church and how we worship our always good and sovereign God on Sunday mornings. I am not minimizing the inconvenience, cost, and impact of this situation.
But, as I sit back and consider it all, I truly do praise God. This could have happened on a Friday where it would have continued unabated for one to two days and we would have walked in to the situation on a Sunday morning. This could have happened last week when I was out of town making the situation much more difficult for the church to handle.
The more things are removed from the life of a Christian the more we find out that Christ is there and that He is enough
Neither of those things happened! Additionally, we have insurance that will help pay for this. We live in a society that has professionals who can and did respond almost immediately to deal with the clean up as well as repair the pumps and alarm so this situation doesn’t repeat itself.
And, most importantly, I praise God for the opportunity to extoll His greatness in such a situation. Paul says that he counted the loss of all things as mere rubbish (Phil 3:8). He said this because as he lost stuff like his freedom, his status, his physical health, he grew to know and experience Christ more.
In a small way, that is where we are as a church. In our present difficulties we are able to testify to the sufficiency and all-satisfying nature of Christ even while we clean up the mess and prepare to spend money. As we do this we are reveling in Christ and we show the world and one another that He is more valuable and more precious than our convenience, than our ease, than anything else and in so doing He is glorified.
The more things are removed from the life of a Christian the more we find out that Christ is there and that He is enough. We do lose things on earth, but as that happens we gain Christ and in so doing find contentment with and in Him.