When it rains it pours From The Bunker Day 59

“When it rains it pours” means that something happens in abundance, good or bad, in a short span of time. The last couple of days is a perfect example of the saying. It literally poured rain. That’s good if all your crops are planted and the ground is dry. That’s good since I just planted an area of grass and now it is popping out of the ground. It’s bad when it causes a mud slide and you can’t get through. It’s bad when the water level in your sump keeps rising. That is why I put in a new sump pump system. It sends me texts and a loud beep when the pump loses electricity or gets stuck. Like right now. That little annoying beeper has been going off almost every 15 minutes. I have to go down and manually push the float so it will unstick and let the pump start working again. There are three ways to deal with the beeping. First, I could push the mute button so I can’t hear it anymore. Second, I could unplug the whole thing and let the smaller back-up pump do all the work. Third, like I said, go down and unstick the float. I guess there is a fourth remedy. I could get it fixed.

Unplugging it and pressing the mute button merely ignores the problem. In fact the problem will get much worse as the water rises and fills the basement, destroying everything (that happened last year). Unsticking the float works, but it doesn’t fix the problem. It’s only a bandaid, and if I am not careful will result in forgetting about it and flooding the basement again. Fixing it is the real remedy, but it costs money, hurts the pocket book, and is inconvenient. Excuse me I have to go stop the beeping….I’m back. It is annoying but the beeping and text serves a specific purpose. It reminds me of some impending problem.

Life is like that, “when it rains and pours,” and usually refers to something negative. Relationships are hard enough, but when your spouse is argumentative or your children fight you at every step, and tempers fly and feelings get hurt, the damage is done. Covid19 has brought on a flood of issues that cause people to be at each other’s throats. Just recently I was told that there were people taking pictures of others not following the rules of social distancing or congregating. Follow that up with the extreme opinions about how far the government should or should not invade our rights to assemble and social media explodes with dissent.

Relationships are the same as my sump pump system. When things start to go wrong there are annoying warning signs that something is wrong. A couple of warning signs are gossiping and complaining, and they are close sisters to dissent and division. In the church unity is the mark that everything is going well, but when tensions grow, feelings are hurt, or opinions clash our call to love one another flies out the window. Our high call of unity takes a back seat to selfishness and fear.

The Apostle Paul said, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together,” 1 Corinthians 12:26. He also said, “And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble,” 1 Corinthians 8:11-13.

How can we love one another on an issue that can deeply divide? 1. Love demands protecting the weak among us. If you know people in the at risk category and they feel you should be six feet away and wear masks they should be respected and accommodated. Accommodation can either be wearing masks or staying away. 38 percent of the families taking our poll said that they would feel comfortable attending church if everyone wore masks. For that reason we will designate a space for masks only, social distancing, and sanitizing stations. 
2. Love demands that we respect one another’s position. If a position isn’t immoral or heretical then even if it is different than my deeply held conviction, you still deserve respect. If you think wearing a mask is responsible and I think it is restrictive and unhealthy for me, each of us needs to respect the other. That might mean we don’t interact during this time, but the deeper issue is how I treat others when they are not around. Do I speak ill of them in public? Do I go to social media to expose them and their uncaring attitude or their cowing to government intrusion? Respecting your brother and sisters in Christ means protecting their character even if you disagree.

3. Love demands we do everything we can to unite our body, listening to the annoying sounds that alert us to the harmful affects of disunity. We will eventually open the church doors and there will be different ideas of how that should be done. As a staff we will do everything in our power to create environments where people feel safe and respected. The question each us must ask is, “how do I love better and deeper?”

Tomorrow I need to have my pump checked out. It will take time and cost some money, but the effort will eliminate the annoying beeping the next time it pours, and the rain will come again…I’m just saying.

From the Bunker Day 59