Imitating God Without Insulting Him (Part 4) Series

Imitating God Without Insulting Him

(Part 4, The Call)

Illustration of last night’s water heater fiasco and no towels.

Okay, so it’s about 8:00 and I’m working on some homework, getting gall the things down that I needed for today, checking everything twice. Checking my sermon notes, thinking, boy this is gonna be a good one. Tanya is baking up a storm and trying to get the kids ready for bed. Not to much happening at Marc’s house. I go out to the room where the boys are playing to check on them and hear this strange sound coming form the laundry closet. I get to the closet door and I feel water squishing up between my toes. I open the door and see water jetting out of the bottom of my water heater. I run outside and turn the water to the house off. I come back in side and I’m fuming. There had never been a better time for a water heater to burst. Right in the middle of all the important stuff, this had to happen. I’m getting gin the right frame of mind to be able to preach, tomorrow is going to be a very big day, gotta make sure everything is ready, and the water heater breaks? You gotta be kidding me. Tanya is bringing in the towels by the armload to soak up the water that is ruining my carpet. I ‘m now upset with her for using every towel in the house, I am just livid and I can’t believe that this had to happen now. I haven’t even shaved yet; forget taking a shower. Oh yeah, and how am I gonna get my hair to have that wet look with no wet. (By the way, it’s the Equate brand from Walmart; hold level number 5.) My patience didn’t even have a chance to get tested. It went right out the window. I was making a fool of myself. I called a plumber to get some kind of advice and all I got back was the really expensive kind. I figured, I used to plumb a thing or two, why can’t I do this myself. I told Tanya to get the kids in the van and we were off to Lowe’s. 8:30 in the evening and we are going to Lowe’s to get a water heater. Not your ideal family outing. We get the water heater and the necessary parts to put it together and head home. I get the broken water heater drained and take it out. I now can put the new one in. I have totally lost my cool and am beginning to yell at myself, like I had something to do with the water heater wanting to break. I guess someone has to take the blame, right? It’s about 9:45 and I finally get the water heater into position. I get the fittings for the water lines and I realize I got the wrong brass piece for the cold side. Talk about kicking yourself when you are down. I couldn’t believe it. I have got to preach today about imitating Christ without insulting Him and the best illustration God could give me was this? I guess it makes the point though. In the end I got the water heater somewhat working. I still have to get the right piece on the way home today but for now it works, with a small leak. To top things off, I get to take my shower and when I finish I realize that there are no towels in the bathroom. I ask Tanya to get me a clean one, and she reminds me that there are no more left. Then she pauses and says, “Oh, wait a minute.” She comes back with this – a baby towel. She says, “This should work, but there is one problem. I don’t think the hood part will fit your head.” I have the best wife. To be able to past all my faults and still be able to make fun of me. The truth is I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain with God last night. I let frustration get the best of me and I’m pretty sure that I embarrassed God a little. The point is though, that we often let things like water heaters take dominion over our right relationships with God. In the process, we not only insult or embarrass God as His children, but we embarrass ourselves. I had to dry myself off with a baby towel because that is exactly what I had acted like, a baby. I’m being hard on myself, but I don’t think God was in a laughing mood as I was being foolish.

Check Clock and notice time:

In the movie Oh God, John Denver plays a man who keeps getting messages from God that he is supposed to relate to the rest of us. In one scene, he goes to hear an evangelistic preacher, who in many ways is a caricature of all the worst things in those of us who take that role. The John Denver character interrupts the preacher’s sermon to tell him that God had a special message just for him.