Water Leak
3 August 2022
Gushing water.
After dinner last Thursday evening, my dog and I walked outside to a surprise. Despite the July Georgia heat, our front yard featured bubbling pools and flowing streams. Water line break! Quickly, let’s stem the tide and ka-ching of the water meter! Although I successfully opened my water meter box for the first time in a decade, the turn off valve was nowhere to be seen. Dig, dig, dig away the years of accumulated dirt. Yes, there’s the valve! Now, amid mosquitos and other insects angry with disruption, my puny wrench somehow does the trick.
On Friday afternoon, the visiting plumbers confirm the leak is right below the spot we identified. But since they can’t dig deep enough (amid all the bushes I’ve complained about in my sermon a few months ago), they tell me I’m responsible for removing some bushes and digging the rest of the hole. Citing our builder’s shoddy workmanship, they warn me the water line is much further down than typical. They can dig it on second visit, but it they’ll charge a second mortgage. Furthermore, since it’s Friday afternoon, and they don’t work weekends, they’ll see me on Monday and wish me luck.
Some good friends help me yank out the infamous shrub and start digging a bit. Friday night, the heavens open with the rain our land needs, but it fills the hole like a small swimming pool. I’m surprised ducks weren’t attracted. At first light Monday morning, with my grubbiest clothes, I start bailing water. When a shovel no longer fit, trowels helped me find and unearth the broken water line more than 4 feet below the mulch. My excitement seeing the simple white plastic tubing probably surpassed the delights of archaeological excavators in Israel.
As I write this, the plumbers are out front, on their second try of securing a tight fit of the new line they installed. Prayers are rising!
No water since Thursday evening. No water to sinks to wash dishes or brush teeth. No water to showers or tubs to clean up. No water to washing machines or ice-makers. No water to hoses to water flowers and gardens. No water out of the tap to take a drink.
The silver-lining of this “first-world odyssey”? A new, deep appreciation of our area’s blessing of clean, ever-abundant water. Through three trips to Haiti with COS folks, we witnessed families filter their water in order to avoid disease. At ELCA Youth Gatherings, one faith exercise meant carrying a 5-gallon jug of water as far as possible, putting one in touch with what it meant for women world-wide to walk miles to a (sometimes dirty) river or village pump in order to secure water and haul it back. Ugh. As I positioned buckets out on my porch trying to collect rain water so we could fill our toilet tanks high enough to flush them, I silently blessed the millions in drought situations with no rain that falls. As we used the neighborhood shower to freshen up, LuAnne and I considered more profoundly what our country’s homeless must face.
- One billion people worldwide lack adequate access to water.
- 7 billion face water scarcity for at least one month of the year.
- Only three-quarters of the global population in 2020 used a safely managed drinking-water service – that is, one located on premises, available when needed, and free from contamination.
- We rejoice that our offerings to the ELCA help with water projects world-wide.
Amid water scarcity, no wonder Psalm 23 promises that God leads us beside still waters—clean, drinkable, refreshing, trustworthy, abundant waters. Or how when Jesus tells a Samaritan woman at the well, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (John 4.10). Yes, Jesus, give us your living water . . . . and also, a huge “thank you” for the gift of daily water as well!
Appreciating afresh,
Pastor Fritz
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we confess sometimes we don’t see the daily blessings you provide. We’re sorry. Not until we cut our thumb do we appreciate how useful it is. Not until we lose water do we appreciate how much we need it. Keep giving us our daily bread, as we pray in the Lord’s prayer. Keep giving us our daily water, too. Showers, garden hoses, dishwashers, laundry machines, baptismal fonts, and sinks to fill up water bottles anytime we want. Wow! Help us appreciate how your love is even more available and critical than water . . . and that we would start rejoice in both more deeply. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
