Soggy Holy Ground

I've had a little over a year in this job now. Kinda getting used to God waking me up in the middle of the night. Usually I have a pretty good idea what I'm supposed to be about when He interrupts what I think is supposed to be sleep time. Not always, though.

It happened again about 5:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. It was pretty clear I was supposed to be up and at 'em working to finalize the sermon for Sunday. Once that was finished, I knew I was supposed to crank in hard on the leader training presentation for Saturday. So, I'm feeling pretty good about being obedient and all. I'm sitting in what used to be our dining room--now a makeshift study--writing away. Pretty sure I'm doing what God wants me doing.

Wrong.

About 6:45 a.m., I hear a sound. It's like the sound of many waters--there's scriptural reference for you in there. But it sounded like these were many waters INSIDE. It had been raining outside for two straight days, so water sounds were common. But this sounded different. Now, my wife will tell you that there are two things I do not think should be running loose in a house. One of them is insects. The other is, well, you know---H2O.

I listen for a few seconds, and the sound does not go away. I start a search. Could it be that God has gotten Jackie up at 6:45 and she's showering? Jackie's a slow-waker-upper, so it's unlikely in the stupor she's in when she first gets up that she would have gone from sleep to shower this quickly. But I check. Nothing there.

I check the garage, where we had a water leak last year. Nothing there. I check out the back windows and walk around first floor. Nothing.

I go to the basement. . .and step into a couple of inches of water. The analyst in me figures "This may be where the sound is coming from." I turn the corner and there it is. The main water line is busted. Good news is that I've figured out where the water pressure we don't seem to have in our kitchen sink is concentrated. Yeah, water's shooting out like a fire hydrant--not the ones in DC that don't work, but a functioning one.

Things get wacky for a while as I'm trying to remember where the main water valve is and shut it off, try to find brooms and rags and towels, and, well, you can imagine.

Hours later, with the clean up basically in hand, Jackie and I sat, exhausted, and reflected. What if God hadn't awakened me? What if that water line had busted at 2:00 a.m. and run all night? What if it had happened when we were away for a vacation or something? Yeah, we were inconvenienced a little, but it could have been so much worse. And before our time was over, we were rejoicing about the water in the basement and how wonderful God's timing was in it all and how the best thing that could have happened was for that water line to bust open. It was weird. It was wonderful.

I went back to the basement. Still some puddles here and there, but I saw it differently this time. This was where God did something. This was where He intervened. This is where He revealed a weakness, caused a disturbance, forced a response, but He did it with grace, minimizing the damage in His love, like a surgeon. Then it hit me. This is how He deals with me all the time.

And during that time with Him there, I saw what was true all along--that the wet concrete floor wasn't just a basement. It was holy ground.

Maybe God's messing around in your life today, too. Do you see it as an inconvenience, or a chance to touch and be touched by the maker of everything?

God's good. Happy slogging.



Dwaine Darrah
McLean Campus Pastor