TOILET TRAINING

Both of the downstairs toilets in my house have been acting up lately. But because it has been intermittent, and because I have just spent so much money on a fence, I have been trying to avoid costly plumber bills. So it was an especially sickening "snap" I heard as I pulled the toilet handle this morning. Leaning over it, half-asleep and half-naked, I could already feel panic starting to rise with the water in the tank. Like some character in a TV comedy, I saw the water rising above the water line and still don't know what I did to make it stop. When I woke up a little more I realized the "snap" was the armature running from the handle to the bottom of the tank having snapped. And I thought, "Has it come to this, that a little piece of plastic is able to send me into a panic?"

A Bible verse which I've already quoted a few times in this blog came to mind: JESUS is speaking in John 16:33 and says "These things (explaining His mission and how much the Father loves us and wants us with Himself) I have explained to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world."

The Greek for that word "world" means the entire created order that has been tainted by sin. JESUS has overcome the world and all the effects of sin that annoy and panic us every day, from broken toilets to sickness and even death. As I repeated "JESUS has overcome...broken toilets..." I could feel myself smile already. Try using that truth yourself, filling in whatever is making you upset. "Jesus has overcome...divorce, sickness, death, loneliness..." Insert your own issues and be as specific as you'd like and talk to Him about them. I'll bet you suddenly feel the same sense of peace I felt at the realization of how true it is and how ironically funny it is that we trust Him (and we can) for the eternal destiny of our souls but so often let a car, a broken toilet, a broken promise or word spoken in anger and all sorts of other things get us upset.

John repeats this encouragement about overcoming in one of his letters, 1 John 4:4: "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them (those people and issues of this sin-stained world that would upset you) because greater is He that is in you (Christ through the Holy Spirit) than he that is in the world."

I still don't know what I'm going to do to get the toilet fixed. But I know that I don't need to panic about it because "JESUS has overcome."