Part Three: “Honey, the sink is gurgling…”

“Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” James 1:3

After I discovered our flooded crawlspace, I had a brief temper tantrum lasting about five minutes. After it was over I found myself on my phone searching “how to get water out of your crawlspace.”

My wife’s words came back to my mind: “Call Tim next door, see if his crawlspace is flooded, or if he has any advice.”

I still didn’t want to talk to anyone, I was trying to wrap my head around the enormity of the problem. I found myself reading a story about someone paying $10,000 to have their crawlspace cleaned and sealed…my heart sank.

When I got to the comments section people were sharing their own crawlspace disaster stories, and out of the blue one of the comments simply said, “Call your neighbor.”

Huh? I looked again and I knew instantly that the Lord was speaking straight to me. His timing is perfect. I called my neighbor Tim.

“What’s going on, Eric?”

I explained the situation and asked if his crawlspace ever flooded…and that I hoped it wasn’t a broken pipe or something. He told me not to worry about it…just those words helped me tremendously. He went on to explain:

“We’re in a high flood plain. Everything’s saturated, but it’s not usually this bad. You’ll be fine…just get yourself a submersible pump and run a hose out to the sewer out front. Let me know how it goes.”

A half hour later I’m at the Home Depot buying a pump, hose, and rubber boots. Shortly after that, I’m pumping water out of the crawlspace, and my mood has gone from dark to light…it’s groundwater, not broken pipes.

Friends, we all have trials and get down at times…we’re human. But pride and anger can keep us from asking for help or advice. I’m so thankful that my wife told me to call my neighbor. I’m also thankful that God confirmed it through a random comment on a random story right when I needed it.

God allows our trials, but He is faithful to lead us through them. I have a huge job to do cleaning up the crawlspace, enough for ten men…but God will help me take care of it. He’ll help you, too…just wait on His timing and follow His instructions.

P.S. After the water level in the crawlspace dropped a few inches, the sink stopped gurgling. God was faithful to give me a gurgling sink in order to discover a deeper problem. That will preach!