I’ve got a Leak!  I’ve got a hundred things to do today.  Now I’ve got a hundred and one things to do.  As I drive down my driveway, I notice water coming from out of the ground.  Uh oh,  The water is spewing from the exact spot where my water line to the house is buried. Uh oh.

A quick trip to town and I’m back with shovel, pipe repair kit and glue, the all important hacksaw, and most important………. me wearing my repairman’s hat.  I’ll fix it myself!!!!

Naturally this happens on a very cold day.  I start digging through mud and water.  Uh oh, I find the pipe.  Uh oh, it’s seriously being choked by tree roots that have grown around the pipe and the joint that hooks the two pieces together.  Uh oh, there’s the leak.  After I move all the mud and dirt away, the water now shoots straight up (and into my face)

A quick trip to the barn and I’m now back with an axe to chop away all the tree roots from around the pipe’s joint. It’s fascinating to me how slowly growing tree roots can over time cause pressure……. pressure enough to break the bonds of this pipe joint.

But it’s Dan the repair man to the rescue!!!!   I’ll just chop away those pesky roots and ……..uh oh.  I nicked a hole in the pipe with the axe. Dang it!

A quick trip to the neighbors to borrow a cutoff wrench so that I can turn off the water at the main meter.  Uh oh I better tell Staci that the water is going to be off for a while. She asks what the problem is and my reply is something like “I’m not sure, but I’m sure it won’t be off for long.”  Uh oh……

I cut the pipe and remove all tree roots from around the pipe.  Honestly, it was a wad of roots the size of a basketball all tangled and woven in a tight mass around this pipe joint.  I placed the repair kit union over the cut pipe and join the two pieces together.  I get to yell what every repairman loves to yell.  “YEEAAAA, I fixed it!”  I turn the water back on expecting to load up all the tools, wash all the mud off of me and my clothes and continue on my day of the other 100 things to do.  Uh oh…….Oh no, I must not have tightened the repair union enough because now it’s leaking like a screen door on a submarine.

A quick trip to borrow Daddy’s pipe wrenches, and I’m back kneeling down in the muddy hole that has grown to the size of a bathtub.  Uh oh, no wait…..,this time I do fix it.  It’s stopped leaking.  “I fixed it” I whispered this time instead of yelling, just so I wouldn’t jinx it.

Lamentations 3:40 (NIV) Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.

Staying Connected……. it’s one of the most important things that we need in our lives.  All kinds of circumstance can become like those roots and choke and put pressure on our connections with God.  Uh oh.  Also the connections we have with other people can begin to “leak”.  Could be slowly over time things start “growing around the pipe”.  We don’t even realize it until well, until the “uh oh” moment.  Now we got to do some repair work.  And that’s when it gets muddy and nasty and well more “uh oh’s”

So, constantly examine your ways and test them.  By that I mean does it seems that you and your relationship to God is not as strong as it should be, or even used to be?  Uh oh, maybe there’s a leak that needs fixin’.

At the same time, what about those relationships with others in your life…… family, friends.  Over time has the connection started to leak.  Better put your repairman’s hat on.  It’s fascinating but also troubling to me how over time small things can “turn a drip, drip leak into a busted pipe” between people.  Uh oh.  Even more troubling is how those leaks and “breaks” between people cause even more leaks and breaks and broken connections between you and God.

My prayer is that you will have few “Uh Oh” moments.  But they happen.  When they do, realize it will be muddy and nasty.  Connections with other people need to be repaired.  There may be a piece of pipe or let’s say a part of your life that will not be the same because of the damage.  You yourself may even get “nicked” in the repair process.  But all in all we are all in this together.  Stay connected in some way.

I am a repairman for my connections in my own life and spiritual journey.  I have come to realize that God’s got the “glue” that works best for me to use, on myself as well as others.  If I focus on staying connected with Him, my connection with others becomes more manageable.  Always will be uh oh’s, always will be leaks.  How we repair these connections will determine if our source of Living Water becomes interrupted or can continue free flowing.

See Ya!  Dan Ainsworth wilderness preacher, plumber, professional “Uh Oher”