Water! Water! Everywhere!

“I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong,

but I do it anyway.” Romans 7:19 NLT

You know those moments when that little small voice is whispering in your ear? Sort of like that commercial for Trumoo chocolate milk where there’s a tiny milkman dressed all in white sitting on the guy’s right shoulder and a tiny milkman dressed all in red, complete with pitchfork, sitting on the guy’s other shoulder while he’s standing in the refrigerator trying to decide if chocolate milk is a good idea for the hungry little kids sitting on the couch, watching The Lego Movie – (Everything Is Awesome!) – and demanding cookies and milk? Anyway, the tiny milkman dressed in white says, “Go ahead, it’s good.” And the tiny milkman in red says, “I got nothin’...”

This tiny voice thing where you can pick which side you’re going to listen to happens more frequently than we admit. For instance: You run into someone you haven't seen for a while and they invite you to go to something you’d rather die than attend. You hear that little voice in one ear saying, “Be kind. It won’t kill you to support this.” And the other little voice – the one in red – is saying, “Just kill me now!” So what do we do? We smile, we say, “Gosh! That sounds great, let me check my calendar and get back to you,” knowing full well that that’s not exactly honest as we have no intention of getting back.

We’re good with stuff like the checker at Target gives us $5 too much in change; it wouldn’t occur to us to keep it. Most of us are probably never going to murder anyone. I’m not visualizing anyone I know stealing a car or vandalizing anything, but it all goes back to this thing up here where Paul talks about wanting to do what is good and not wanting to do what is wrong.

Last Sunday morning I was watering. Currently, with the never-ending drought here in California, that’s something that I do a lot as we are trying desperately to keep our trees alive. As our house is a hundred years old and in a very well established neighborhood, we are surrounded by trees, all of which are crying out to us for water. We can use our sprinklers twice a week for about five minutes, and we are allowed to hand water as long as it’s before 10:00 a.m. and after 4:00 p.m. The rationale there being more evaporation will occur in that midday forbidden zone.

So, it’s Sunday and I’m out at the side of our house about to throw a little moisture on those thirsty guys. This involves stepping down about 18” or so to get to the hose. I’m standing up there looking down and I see this pipe, which is right below me and not so far down. As I start to step down, the little small voice is shrieking in my ear, “Don’t step on that pipe!” Too late. I couldn’t step past it, it promptly broke and thousands of gallons of water went gushing out.

“I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway!”

I really regretted this. Boy! Did I regret this! Emergency call to my precious, patient husband, John, dragging him away from Church in the Park before he even got his apron on. Emergency turning off of a huge valve, emergency call to our beloved plumber, Mike Partain, and myself covered in water and chagrin. I listened, but just not soon enough.

The words from Romans started echoing in my mind and have filled my thoughts for a week now. There will be ramifications in the water bill, but the water that was lost all benefitted the big avocado tree and soaked back into our water table with amazing speed.

Friends out there, I have a feeling you can all relate to this in one way or another and confession is good for the soul, or so I’ve heard. I just need my small voice to yell a little sooner and maybe a little louder.