Dirty Date Night

Last night was Monday night, my Sabbath, my designated date night with Jesus. Needless to say, probably the most interesting and dirtiest date night to date.

My sink backed up on Sunday night. I looked up online how to fix a clogged sink. I thought perhaps the thing was frozen and I dumped pots of hot water to no avail and stuck a portable heater underneath, also to no avail. We went to the hardware store, bought some baking soda and vinegar, and proceeded to recreate a 4th grade science experiment in my sink pipes.

Still clogged, but now I had all kinds of nasty bubbling up into the basin. NASTY. I crawled beneath the sink and unscrewed a cap, which spewed a giant blob of wet baking soda, brown water, and more nasty stuff. I realized it wasn't the pipe from the sink that had the problem; it was the pipe to the drain that was the problem.

I grabbed the wrench and dismantled the plumbing beneath my sink. Lots of black scum down there. I pulled out the pipe that lead to the drain and realized it was frozen solid. I took the whole mess of pipes over to my shower room and shot hot water through it. Finally the ice melted, and the sheer force of the hot water flowing through the pipes flushed out every nasty black scum every accumulated. It sprayed nasty black scum all over my shower. GROSS. But after that whole ordeal, I reassembled all the plumbing under the sink and tested to make sure it worked.

The internet told me to use baking soda and vinegar to flush out my pipes. That would've worked--except that wasn't the problem. Instead, it brought up a whole bunch of nasties that were previously hidden away from my sight. The problem wasn't where I thought it would be. But it took lots of trying and hot water to figure out where the problem actually was. And then a dismantling, full flushing, and rebuilding to get everything functioning again. The problem was much bigger than a hairball stuck in the pipe. It was years of nasty black scum frozen in my drain pipe...much deeper than I imagined the problem could be.

So much of my life looked like nasty bubbling stuff. There was a problem deep inside my life and yet all that anyone could see was this nasty bubbling stuff. The solutions everyone offered (like the baking soda & vinegar) weren't solving the problem--more Bible studies, another accountability group, another church service. The problem wasn't where everyone thought it was. The problem was deeper, much deeper--nasty frozen black scum in my heart. And I had to have life taken apart piece by piece until I could be saturated with the love of Jesus. And over time, that nasty frozen black scum came out, but it wasn't without lots of hot water and radical accountability and lavish grace. And He put me back together--to be useful and used for a purpose. If every once in a while, I sat in the presence of Jesus and let His love flow through me and cleanse me and wash me clean, I wouldn't get nasty frozen black scum build up.

Jesus and I sat on the couch (after I showered and sanitized myself) and shared a laugh. I apologized we had to fix my sink on our date night, but there was so much more He wanted to show me and remind me during our whole plumbing ordeal--nasty black scum and all.