Baffling

Has your kitchen sink ever gurgled while someone else takes a shower upstairs? Or your shower drain stunk or your toilet tank drizzled something nasty out the top and down the side? Or worse yet, has the drain in your utility room spewed, up out of the septic, something that was meant to flush down and go away forever, now returning with a smelly vengeance to reek (literally) havoc on your senses?

Ours did yesterday. The gurgling and strange smells had been going on for weeks. As had the conversations with the plumber. Try this, buy that special product, get a snake in there… and then the final, offensive regurgitation happened.

It was too late for the plumber so after reading online, we turned off all water, no flushing, used filtered water from the fridge and went to bed (see note below*).

Morning came and the plumber advised to call the septic guys. Troy showed up promptly – in answer to a prayer Frank prayed, that this would be resolved IN THE MORNING – and the digging began. Nick on the job. The lid was lifted off the mighty tank and the culprit located. One shove of a crowbar down the baffle, removing the clog of toilet paper and other detritus, and the water flowed mercifully down where it was meant to go. Toilets were flushed, showers had and the gurgling was gone.

Thank God!

We will have the tank pumped, as Troy suggested, since the lid is difficult to access and now exposed. Get rid of all the waste and start fresh.

Oh the metaphors.

I had another clog the other day. Heart backed up. Mind jammed. Resistance to movement I’m meant to make.

Unforgiveness leaves a stench. My thoughts stuck and anger spews. Don’t even know where the blockage is, how it started. But it’s spreading and now people are starting to stare and step back. Stench of missing the mark of love sends a waft of wasted opportunity into the air. I need help.

I’ve tried to cloak the clog, hide the hinderance, bury the burden but it seeps out. Snappy words, scowls, just plain exhaustion from trying to keep up the masquerade. I need a plunger, a plumber. Someone to look at my system and see where the waste is stuck. What is going on?

My interpretation. “Probe my soul God. Bring your holy augur and plumb the depths of me. Plunge out the blockages and let your pure water flow through me so I can do your wonderful, loving will.”

Today He did just that.

I sat with Him, lifted the lid on my heart and got honest with the Lord. It’s okay to do that. So important in fact. He knows everything in my pipes anyway. The Psalmist give us a template of weeping and wonder, confusion and calm, rage and rejoicing in all those amazing poems. God knows our inmost being, our deepest thoughts and is with us.

Read Psalm 139 https://www.biblestudytools.com/nas/psalms/139.html

When we bring the weeping, confusion and rage to Him, He will hear us. He will comfort our hearts and He will give wisdom. He remembers we are dust https://www.christianity.com/bible/niv/psalm/103-14

He wants to cleanse us. That is part of what Jesus died to do.

And so He did. I traded my confusion for His calm truth. It flowed through the channels of my soul, clearing lies and anxieties. It reminded me of Who He Is, yet again. How easily I forget His unfailing mercy, His kindness and faithfulness, His perseverance. Trust grew again, filling the systems of me with clarity and the pleasant fragrance of peace.

Note: This could be a whole other blog, but in short, Frank got into that confined space with his rubber boots, gloves, bucket and mop and cleaned up the nasty, before we went to bed. Love covers a multitude of sins.

Note: Psalm 139:23-24 image from DailyVerses.net