Kingdom Quandary #14 - From drip to disaster

In an earlier post, I talked about my recent bathroom remodeling project. But I haven’t told you the epic tale leading up to the total makeover.

Once upon a time, there was a drip. It was a small drip coming from the handle when we turned on the shower. I was busy (perhaps lazy?) at the time, so I ignored it. In a few months, the drip became a dribble. Water began to stream down the side of the shower wall, so I took apart the valve. Sure enough, the valve was damaged. But, the general hardware stores didn’t carry the valve, so I put the broken one back in and hoped the problem would go away.

In a few months, the dribble became a splash, and I began to get worried. I called the local plumbing supply store to see if they had the part. But, since I didn’t have a part number, they said I needed to bring in the valve. They didn’t have evening or weekend hours, so I was too inconvenienced to do anything about it. In a few months, the splash mysteriously found a hole and a small stream of water fell from the shower to the basement and would stream into the basement floor drain. I thought to myself, “Maybe I should call a plumber?” but I didn’t because I thought it would cost too much.

A few months later, the floor beside the shower began to show signs of discoloration. I began to regret ever buying a home. I thought to myself, “Maybe I could just cover it up and just sell my home!” Too bad the housing bubble just popped. Other immature thoughts began to cross my mind as I devised schemes to escape from the problem.

A few months later, a strong conviction from the Holy Spirit hit me. God gave me this home, and it is my job to take care of it. I couldn’t ignore the problem. It’s not going to fix itself. The problem is too serious to cover it up. My schedule will be inconvenienced to fix it. I need to stop complaining about the cost. And, escaping the problem will wrongfully shift my God-given responsibilities to someone else.

Since the beginning of time, people have dealt with the problem of evil in many of the same ways. At a personal level, evil can -- and will -- infect our mind, heart, soul, and body. And, more seriously, the inworking of personal evil will result in the outworking of social evils that rip apart families, communities, and nations. Absolutely no social structure is left unscathed by the dominion of evil.

Yes, evil is serious, and it must be taken seriously. Otherwise, just like the mishandling of my bathroom, small evils give birth to large - more heinous - forms of evil. When left unchecked, it results in third and fourth orders of evil that further compound the original problem and exponentially increases the cost of restoration.

Which personal and social evils have dominion over you?