Disneyland and Water-heaters
My husband and I have been saving to go to Disneyland. Our son lives near San Diego and he suggested one day that we should come visit him and then we could all go to Disneyland. We decided our son had a grand idea and we began to squirrel away finances so we could go hang with our son and Mickey. We had originally thought we would go on our grand adventure in the fall. Instead, our son came home on leave for his birthday. A wonderful trade off, so we began to contemplate going in early December: in time to see Disneyland decked out for Christmas, but before the Christmas crowds took over.
We knew our water heater was old. We had actually been aware for a year or two that a new water heater was in our future. We had noticed before we left town for Labor Day that it was leaking more than “a bit.” We turned the water off before we left town to avoid coming home to a flood. One would think this would cause us to realize a new water heater was coming so much sooner than later. My husband invested time in checking out home warranty programs and we began discussing if we were cheating the companies because we knew our water heater was on it’s last leg. My husband’s job got busy and the home warranty program got put on the back burner, after all, we still had hot showers every morning. Note: my husband is not normally a put-stuff-off person; that is all me! I thought about the water heater because I’m in the laundry room, where it is located, on a regular basis. He truly was overwhelmed by activities at work, and the water heater was not on his mind. I on the other hand just thought “it’s still working, because I still have hot water!”
I was doing laundry yesterday and I was running up and down the stairs barefoot. I noticed a section of carpet that was oddly wet. Not wet like the dog drooled, or wet like I spilled some of my coffee, but “eww! This is WET!” wet. I noticed that on the other side of the wall from the wet area was the suffering water heater. I called my husband with this message: “I think we have a bigger problem with our water heater than we thought.”
We are getting a new hot water heater today. It may cost us our trip to Disneyland. There is a part of me that is disappointed. I would love to go to Disneyland, it is one of my favorite places to go. I also really appreciate a continuous supply of hot water. As my husband and I looked over our finances he commented that God was providing the finances to cover the cost of the hot water heater. We don’t need to take a loan. We can pay for it and not touch our savings. God is good. We may just not go to Disneyland. And God is still good.
My enjoyment of life is not dependent on fun vacations. Nor is it dependent on having hot water for my shower, the laundry and/or the dishes. Romans 12:12 says, “Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.” (NLT) Rejoice in our confident hope: have joy over the truth that Jesus has paid the penalty price for all of the messed up things I’ve done, and He has given me a ticket that gets me into His presence — every day, and for all of eternity; have joy over the truth that I don’t journey this life alone, He is always with me; have joy over the truth that He provides peace when I trust Him and follow His lead in obedience. I CAN rejoice for every hope I have: to be loved, to be wanted, to be considered valuable, to belong, to live life with purpose, to have reasons to laugh and enjoy life can all be found in the person of Jesus, living life with Him and honoring Him.
I have a new hot water-heater. I may or may not go to Disneyland. And I rejoice for I have a confident hope; life is good, for I know that God is good, all the time.
