The Toilet Always Flushes Twice
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you may remember my bathroom project and a toilet with a mysterious double flush. The project continues and the toilet still flushes twice, but there is progress. Last night, my friend, Jay, came out to the house to help me rough in the plumbing for the shower and bath. I do a lot of work myself, but some trades I like to leave to the professionals.
I probably could have eventually figured it out and three or four half Saturdays later and 15 trips to the store I would have called Jay. Instead, I watched a man who has perfected a craft I know very little about, put together the ‘soul’ of my bathroom in a few hours.
Soon I will have all the walls covered and his work will not be seen again, but without it, it’s really not a bathroom. I could tile the floors, the shower and the tub surround to perfection and it would be good for nothing but an echo chamber without his expertise.
We just came through the Easter season. This is the time of year when we remember Christ’s death and resurrection. The foundation of all that we believe. This is the ultimate example of needing work done that we were not capable of doing. We had an internal problem that needed to be corrected. We needed His work on the cross or we would always just be a functionless shell that never fulfilled our true potential. This is what Easter is. It is the Master completing His work so that we could function as He intended us to in friendship with Him.
Jay took care of something that I could have done, though poorly, but did not want to or have the time to do. Christ took care of the thing that I could not do no matter how badly I wanted to or needed to. My salvation has never been up to me or within my grasp. It has always been His free gift to me. Not free to Him, but free to me.
Jay and I had a written agreement for how much I would pay for the professional services he rendered. Christ called me, opened up the walls of my life and exposed their emptiness, and then said, “I can fix this, and it won’t cost you anything.” Good Friday, Easter, and the story of Redemption from Genesis to Revelation is the best gift that has ever been given. It will take you from a functionless, empty and hollow shell without purpose or meaning, and give you life everlasting.
One day soon my bathroom will be complete. The double-flushing mystery toilet will be relegated to the landfill and my project will be finished. It could be easy to stand back and take a look and think, “Wow, I did really nice work.” To do this would be to ignore that no matter how good it looks, the heart and soul of what makes it a functioning and useful bathroom was created by someone else’s hands. That made all the difference.
We are not our own, we are bought at a terrible price. Embrace God’s free gift and find freedom, purpose, and meaning in your life.
