Howard was curled up in a
near-fetal position. The tiny space made simple movement nearly impossible. His
arms ached. The smell of sewage
assaulted his olfactory and made his eyes water.
How had he gotten himself
into this situation? Was it laziness, stupidity or just that he had tried to
take a short cut he shouldn’t have taken? “Enough!” he thought. Slowly he began
to try to extricate himself from the space in which he now found himself.
Almost immediately he
realized some of his extremities had gone numb. CRAAACK! The back of his head
made contact with a hard, solid object. Instantly a ribbon of pain shot down
his spine and darkness danced at the edges of his eyesight. A string of
obscenities followed.
After several moments, the
sharp pain subsided to a dull ache. Howard began a second attempt to escape the
confined space. He lowered his head even more than the last time. This time he
successfully ducked under the low opening and inched his way backward into the
light.
Finally out of the small
space which had seemingly imprisoned him, he rolled over onto his back and sat
up. His wife, Miriam, was standing at the kitchen counter, an amused smile on
her face and a cup of coffee in her hand.
“I told you we should have
called a plumber,” she said with a smirk. “Thank you for the help and support,”
Howard replied grumpily. “Don’t mention it,” she rejoined. “Lots of
entertainment value. I particularly enjoyed that colorful language of yours.
Were you ever in the Navy?”
“Laugh all you want,” was
Howard’s reply, but I think it’s running again. All I need to do now is put the
pipes back together.”
Howard and Miriam’s kitchen
sink had clogged. A plunger and chemical drain cleaner had been of no use. And
rather than call a plumber, he had chosen to disassemble the pipes and “snake
out” the pipe by hand. It was smelly and disgusting work.
The plumbing reconnected,
Howard turned the water on full force. After a moment’s hesitation the water
began to drain quickly and cleanly. “Well done, champ!” Miriam chirped, making
a toasting gesture with her coffee cup. “And no charge,” smiled Howard.
“You know, we’re very
fortunate,” Miriam mused. “You mean to have an in-house plumber?” Howard asked
with a smile. “Well there is that,” she admitted. “But, I was thinking more of
indoor plumbing and hot and cold running water.” Howard gave her a puzzled
look.
“Remember that trip we took
to Kenya
“Maybe we should go back
and do something about it,” Howard replied, snapping his toolbox shut.
One important aspect of
stewardship is learning to be thankful for the things we normally take for granted.
Most of us slept in a bed last night, had breakfast this morning, and didn’t
have to walk to work unless we wanted to.
But, a majority of the
world’s population does not share those benefits. What is even more disturbing
is that we probably showered or bathed in water which was of better quality
than much of the world has to drink. 780 million people lack access to clean
water -- more than 2 ½ times the population of the US Los Angeles
Stewardship begins with
gratitude. Gratitude means thankfulness, acknowledging everything we
receive. It means living our lives, constantly aware of how much we’ve been
given.
This can be sometimes
difficult when we live in a state of abundance. The key is to shifts our
attention from what our life seems to lack to the abundance which we already
enjoy.
Dear God: Fill my life with
gratitude rather than desire for the things I think I need.
If the only prayer you say in
your life is ‘thank you,’ that would suffice. ~Meister Eckhart, German theologian, philosopher and mystic (1260-1327)
©2013 James E. Carper. All rights reserved.
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