Four Hours Later

Well. This week has not gone as planned. It started off with Monday, which normally starts with staff meeting. This week we went to my Sr. Minister's house for breakfast. It was a nice time, but I did not make it back to the office until almost 11am. By that time the emails and phone messages had stacked up. At 11:30ish I headed out with some students for CiCi's Pizza. They were off of school for Martin Luther King Day. After that, I did some reading and journaling--something that I struggle to do on a regular basis lately. It was good. By the middle of the afternoon, I headed home for awhile since I had an elder's meeting that night so that I got some family time in. While I was home the heater quit working. This has been an unfortunate normal occurance around the farmhouse lately. They serviced it a few months ago and it has never been back to normal. Part of the problem is that it is probably 20 years old. The heater not working left me frustrated and grumpy. Adding to this was a toilet problem.

Tuesday AM I stayed at home to wait for the repair guy. After reading a little and getting Hannah up, I got tired of waiting and headed to the office. I was there just long enough to catch up on some things when the phone rang from my wife saying the repair guy was there. So, I stopped what I was doing and went home. After he was done, I took a break at lunch and went to the store for toilet parts. I couldn't see worth in the toilet continually running and wasting water, which I pay for.
I bought what I thought I need and took it home and installed it. After lunch I hit the office again. In the evening, I had a worship meeting with my sound and audio/visual peoples. That put me home just in time for some play time with Hannah. It was at that point that I found out my repair job on the toilet had not worked.

Wednesday came quickly. I took the whole day off to spend with Hannah and Steph. We did some shopping and had lunch out for Hannah's birthday. It was a good time. That night some of my students came over for Diving Deeper. We had a good discussion about 1 Samuel 4-6 and then watched the rest of the Red Wings hockey game. It was a good time, even though they were bouncing off the walls. At about 10pm Jason Sleight, one of my old interns dropped by the house. While we were hanging out, he mentioned another remedy for the toilet--new part with putty/sealer.

This morning I got up and spent some time with one of our members from the church. About once a month he and I get the chance to go to the coffeeshop together. We work on work while we are there and catch up some on life and what we are struggling with. It was a very good time. After that I went and purchased the new part for the toilet and promptly went home to install it. Unfortunately it didn't work. And, I found out I needed to go for yet another part--a flapper valve. I hit the office for an hour or so to talk with one of my praise band members and then went to the local Menards for a second time today, third time for the week. Parts in hand, I went home to pull a toilet tank.

Now, one would think this is a difficult job. Really it is not. Loosen two bolts and unhook the water supply line and it is free. My biggest fear during all of this was accidently breaking the toilt tank. Its not your normal toilet. It is an almond/pinkish color from the 70s or 80s. It probably was not one of a kind, but now it is. I figured, the way my week had been going, that I was going to drop it or crack it and have to buy a whole new toilet and install it. Fortunately, I did not break it. However, I had to go back to Menards for a 3rd time today buy a wrench large enough to loosen the flapper valve from the tank. Once that was done, I put it all back together. With trips to the store, it only took a couple of hours. At that point, it was 3:30pm. I had made a mess of the shower in the process of fixing the toilet so I figured I would clean the shower and replace the curtain, especially with in-laws coming in this weekend to celebrate my daughter's 2nd birthday. I did that quickly and turned to check for leaks. . . and there was a leak. DRAT! So, I pulled the toilet again, cranked down the ring on the flapper valve, and reinstalled the tank for a second time. Four hours later, it was all done without leaks.

Now, I'm sure at least one of you who actually made it to this point in the post is wondering, why in the world did I have to read about fixing a toilet for so long. I'm actually wondering that myself. I'm wondering why this week turned out to be the mess that it has become. I have 2 big projects still undone that I really wanted to get good work done on this week. Why did the heater and the toilet have to break down this week?

Yet, as I think back over the week so far, God blessed me with lots of time to be with his people. I spent good time with my students twice this week--something that rarely ever happens. I got to share time with a friend and encourage him in his life. I got to talk about life and worship with one of my praise band guys. And, after all was said and done today, I got the chance to hang out with one of my old students who was having computer problems. While we were sitting here working on her laptop, we got the chance to talk about the things going on in her life and how God seems to be moving through them.

Maybe the projects, while important, were not as important as some of those conversations this week, or making sure that my family has heat and a bathroom. Maybe those things broke to help me realize how blessed we really are to have heat and toilets--something we don't often think about, if we do at all.

Lord, thank you for such a messed up week. Thanks for the conversations. Thanks for the hiccups that helped me learn to be patient and loving, even though I was mad and unpatient. Thank you for allowing me to celebrate with my daughter this week, and for giving me such a great girls. May what is left of this week be extra productive for the work I need to do. Keep my mind focused and working for Your glory . . . and don't let anything else break this week.