A FEW YEARS AGO my pastor-husband, Richard, and I decided to retire. We wanted to move from San Diego, California, to Tennessee, where we could live in the country and be closer to our family in Ontario, Canada. My husband noticed an ad in the Pacific Union Recorder for a house for sale in a place called Shekinah Lakes, halfway between Nashville and Memphis.
Although I wanted to leave the city, I was reluctant to move to a country setting. I’m an extrovert, a social butterfly by nature, and I couldn’t visualize myself having just deer and geese to talk to. (Actually, there are some human neighbors in the mix, but not many.) But I soon grew to appreciate living in God’s nature, where I can watch Canada geese, a large white goose that controls the waterways, and a blue heron floating around the lake without a care in the world. Also, a variety of birds in the tree near our porch sing melodious and inspiring sounds like a choir.
After months of house renovations inside and outside, including the large porch Richard built, life began to feel more like home. But then unexpected calamities started to happen.
CALAMITY ONE
The first calamity emerged when we experienced low water pressure in the sinks and constant gurgling sounds in the toilets. They were trying to tell us something loud and clear for a full 10 days. But when a new water pump was installed, that took care of all the strange sounds. Hurrah!
We were so grateful for answered prayer that we lifted our hearts to God in gratitude and read Philippians 4:6, as it spoke to our hearts: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (NIV).
CALAMITY TWO
A week later a second calamity showed up. “Oh, Lord, I think you have the wrong address!” I said. “Surely not another unexpected calamity!”
I was busy playing songs on my keyboard when I felt a chill in the room. I reached for the natural gas fireplace remote and turned it on. After a while the room felt too hot so I proceeded to turn it off, but I noticed that the pilot light had gone off on its own.
Richard did all he could to try to restart it, but finally he had to call a gas expert to inspect the fireplace. The expert found that the valve was broken. Broken? We’d had this new fireplace for only six months. Finally we called the manufacturer, and after hearing the problem, they advised us to send the inside part of the fireplace to them. They received it and are working on it.
We’d actually had three fireplaces before this one, all of which broke down for one reason or another. At this point I quickly walked to my Bible with tensed fingers and flipped pages to find my second calamity Bible verse in 1 Corinthians 10:13: “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it” (NIV).
Reading this Bible verse had a calming effect on me. I trusted that one day our fireplace would find a cozy spot in our living room and heart.
CALAMITY THREE
The very next week we noticed that our kitchen and bathroom sinks were gurgling, but not the toilets as in the previous calamity. When we flushed the toilets, though, the water would rise up and almost overflow. I said, “This surely is not a good sign!”
Then there was the shower. As I opened up the faucet to take a shower after sudsing myself, I got just a dribble of water dripping down the shower wall and not on me. At that point I didn’t want to waste a dribble! We came to the conclusion that calamity three must be caused by our septic tank. So we called a septic tank expert.
Out came the expert to investigate what the cause could be. The previous owner had told my husband that the septic tank was located in the middle of the property. So Richard and the expert went looking in that spot and found out there was no septic tank located there. Onward they marched and searched. Finally, after 20 minutes, they found the septic tank. It felt like they had struck gold at last!
But the septic tank was in the most unlikely place. It was under our driveway! After much digging, they cleaned out the septic tank. The expert said, “Remember, this is only a temporary fix.” It’s a miracle that the Lord protected our car and other visitors’ cars from falling into the septic tank! The expert was shocked there were no calamities of that nature.
Well, they say it comes in threes, and we experienced all of them. The worst part is that the pipes connected to the septic tank are on someone else’s property.
When the shock from this last calamity wore off, I felt like jumping up and down in anger. But instead I ran to my Bible, my only source of sanity and hope. My third calamity Bible verse is found in Matthew 6:20, 21: “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
The lesson I am learning through all of these calamities is that God doesn’t want any of His children to become too comfortable in their country home or any home on earth. I’m glad to know there will be no septic tanks in heaven!
