FireSide Chat II

I have to apologize in advance if this week's lesson sounds a bit "crude." The Lord taught me something amazing, but I don't know any way to communicate it without including some "crude" details from the lesson. So, thank you (in advance) for your patience and understanding.

Things started one day when my husband used our toilet, then went to work. A bit later I went to use the facility myself, and I discovered that he had left a rather large "deposit" which did not flush down the drain like it was supposed to. So, I tried flushing it again. The water level raised to the top of the bowl (fortunately not quite high enough to overflow onto the floor, but close.) I had to wait for the water to drain down to the regular level so I could try again. I tried about 4 or 5 flushes using this formula (e.g., flush and then wait for the water to drain before trying to flush again.) All of my attempts were all unsuccessful. I finally hunted up a plunger and tried again with it. But it was a large "deposit" and a stubborn clog. It took me another six attempts with the plunger (and about 40 minutes of elapsed time) to finally resolve the problem.

A few days later, I woke up early in them morning and left an unusually large deposit of my own. I was half asleep and unaware there was a problem until I flushed. The water level went up to the top of the bowl, almost overflowing it, which caused me to examine the contents of the toilet bowl. This "clog" was bigger than the one from a few days ago. I remembered the ordeal of clearing the previous one, and I thought to myself, "Oh, no, not again!" I waited for the water to drain and tried it again, hoping that things would somehow clear up on it's own, but they did not.

It was very early in the morning. I was still sleepy and I did not want to deal with this sort of problem at that moment. So, more as a cry of frustration than as a legitimate prayer, I said, "Oh Lord, not again! Can't You just clear it up and fix it for me so that I don't have to go through all that hassle again?"

I grabbed the plunger, but before I could use the it, something odd happened. Suddenly, the toilet behaved like it was being flushed. I hadn't actually flushed it yet, and no water was flowing from the tank to the bowl. But suddenly (and for no apparent reason), the water in the bowl began to swirl and drain, taking all of the blockage and contents with it. There was no natural explanation for this--it wasn't a result of the last flush because the cycle for that completed some time before this happened. God had answered my prayer, there was no other possible explanation.

My first thought was that I felt immensely grateful to the Lord for resolving this problem for me, so that I did not have to deal with it. My next thought was amazement that God would bother to help me with such a minor thing in such an obviously supernatural way. It made me realize how well He took care of me. I was still standing there in the bathroom, facing the (now empty) toilet. But my spirit was lost in His goodness and I found myself falling into worship. God had met me where I was at--He had answered my prayer (even though I meant it more as a cry of frustration than as a real prayer.)

God is pretty neat, isn't He! I am constantly amazed at His goodness towards us and His patience with us. I stood there, pondering this for several minutes. The more I thought about Him, the more wonderful I realized He was. Not only is He willing to help us with the big problems, He was also willing to help us with the little things, even disgusting little things like this one.

I am not sure when my mind began to wander from worship to pondering, but I began to think about how active God has been in each of our lives--even working behind the scenes when we are not aware of Him doing so. Then my thoughts moved to how God accomplishes a large portion of His work on the earth--God uses angels to do a lot of His work. They love Him and love to serve Him, just like we do. He gives them tasks to do for His kingdom, just like He gives them to us. God is totally capable of doing it all through His own power and might, but He lets us do things for Him because it delights us to see His power and glory flowing through us to accomplish His purposes. The same is true of the angels.

That was when I realized that God had probably assigned an angel to clear my "clogged toilet" problem. I thought to myself, "Ug, what an unpleasant assignment that must have been." I began to feel embarrassed that I'd ended up causing some poor angel to get that particular "dirty" job. It certainly wasn't something that I'd like to be assigned to do. I hoped the angel was not miffed with me for being assigned that particular task. I wondered if I should ask God to convey my apologies to the angel, and I wondered if the angel was mad about getting this particular assignment.

It was at that moment that the angel chose to speak to me. I wasn't even aware that he was still in the room until he spoke. He said something to the effect of, "Well, let me see. Should I be upset about getting an assignment that showed one of God's precious children just how much He loves them and takes care of them--even in the little things? Should I be upset because my task caused you to drop what you were doing and break into worship, lost in the Lord's goodness? What do you think? Should I be upset that God gave me this task?"

Wow, what a different perspective! I had been focusing on the task, and on how unpleasant it was. But the angel had been focusing on God's purposes behind the task, and on how they were accomplished when the task was performed. I thought of the assignment as a negative thing because my focus was on the task itself. But the angel saw it as a positive thing because his focus was on the fruit that the completed task yielded.

That experience really opened my eyes. When I find that God has asked me to do something that I dislike, that means I am looking at it through a carnal perspective instead of through a Heavenly one. The same thing applies for you too. So, next you are tempted to complain at whatever task the Lord gives to you, instead stop and ask Him to show you what this task looks like from His perspective. Ask Him what He plans to accomplish through it, and it may totally change how you feel about the assignment.

My prayer is this: May the Lord change our perspective to match His! Then our joy will always be full as we serve Him, no matter what He asks us to do!