Recently, I arrived at work at Ellis Piano and immediately got the sense that I needed to go to the ladies' restroom and check on things. When I walked in the restroom, I immediately saw why I was led there first thing in the morning. It was a mess!! I'll spare you the gory details; let's just say that the toilet was going to need a very hefty plunging session.
What a sight for me to face so early in the morning. I am NOT a morning person, and I sure didn't have a strong enough stomach to tackle that dreaded job right out of the chute.
I considered wimping out and going to my boss, owner David Ellis, I volunteered years ago to do the work of maintaining the ladies' restroom in order to help him out. He has to clean the men's restroom, and let me tell you, his job is many times worse than mine. It had been years since we had faced a really bad mess like that in the women's room, but David has said often that there are constant grungy jobs to tackle in the men's. "Men are messy!" I heard him say once as he headed to the men's bathroom with a mop and a scowl on his face.
Since that was the case, I decided not to bother him with the situation this particular morning. I knew that, eventually, I could get up enough energy and guts to free up and clean the toilet.
Still, as I made my way back to my desk, I loathed the thought of the intense, nasty chore I had ahead of me. I sat down and, not really praying to God but more or less complaining, said, "Oh, Lord, we sure could use a plumber today." THEN, my thoughts started to proceed something like this: No way can I call a plumber and expect him to get here today; I can't call a plumber anyway for a job that I can do with some elbow grease . . . it would be too expensive. You might as well stop daydreaming about something that has no chance of happening.
My thoughts were interrupted as the phone started to ring and customers began to come into the store. In fact, we were busy that morning to the point that I didn't have time to even think about the bathroom let alone do anything about it.
About 2:00 in the afternoon, David came over to me and said, "Loretta, remember the mess in the ladies' restroom you told me about this morning? Well, your troubles are over! Blain has volunteered to plunge the toilet for you!" Blain is the owner of the moving company that we use to deliver our pianos. He had come by unexpectedly to take care of some business.
I immediately jumped up and ran to find him. "Blaine," I chanted with relief. You are an angel - an answer to my prayer! You really don't mind cleaning the toilet? It is a BIG mess! Are you sure your stomach can handle it?" He laughed and said, "Oh, I don't mind. I'm used to it; I used to do plumbing work!"
I gasped and, in my mind, saw God smile and wink at me saying, "And you thought I couldn't find an inexpensive plumber today! Oh, ye of little faith."
I don't know about you, but so many times when I have a problem, instead of praying about it and then releasing the problem entirely to God, I begin to come up with all the reasons that God won't be able to answer my prayer.
He is God, for heaven's sake (no pun intended) - he can do anything! Nothing is too big for him to handle. He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. (Ephesians 3:20)
So, the next time you have a big, dirty mess in your life that needs cleaning, give the plunger to God and let HIM do the work. He can handle it!
Commentaires