When you wake up on Monday morning to a flood in your new building what are you supposed to do? Cry? Throw things? Rejoice? I choose to rejoice! I chose this path as a response for a number of reasons; allow me to share just three of those reasons.

First, it’s just a building and I know that the building can be repaired. This is why we have insurance, but more favorably, this is why other people who are responsible for the water line bursting has insurance. I quickly realized that Calvary would not be out a dime to get the building back to original condition. Will it be inconvenient for us as we wait for the building to dry out, for the flooring to be replaced, for the sheetrock to be reinstalled, for the shelving to be repurchased, and for the plethora of workers to finish up the job? Yes it will. This inconvenience is evidenced by the fact that I am in the youth room typing this from an easy chair!

Second, I choose to rejoice because I refuse to allow the vanity of life to tell me how to live. If I’ve learned anything from studying and teaching Ecclesiastes over the last months it is that God wants me to find joy at the end of my rope. I am sincerely running to God in this situation to find joy. I know that life is made up of everyday messes (like slippery roads, electric bills and water line breaks), and God doesn’t want these things to dictate my joy. It is the relationship I have with the Creator of the universe that steers the course of my joy!

Finally, I choose to rejoice because the Lord is sovereign. He is in control of even a broken water supply line. Could He have prevented it from happening? Yes He could. Did He prevent it from happening? No He didn’t. In trusting God’s sovereignty in a situation like this we are saying that we have the utmost confidence that God knows what He is doing. He is the One who can take a situation like this and turn it on its head to glorify Himself. It is our responsibility to seek how we can best honor Him through something like this.

Other circumstances much more devastating have happened in your life; dealing with a broken water supply line is a walk in the park compared to what some of you've been through. Just remember, no mater what we face choose joy!

Grace & Peace,

Scott