Flooding in Stupidity

Have you ever done something really stupid? Did you ask yourself why you did it and couldn’t come up with an answer? That was me this morning. I noticed our toilet was plugged, so I grabbed the second oldest tool in the world, and started plunging.
After about 5 minutes of potty aerobics, I decided that the silly thing should be unplugged so I flushed it. The bowl filled with water, (clean by now) but didn’t flush. I should have kept plunging…
At this point, stupidity set in. I don’t know why I did it. Anyone else would have kept plunging, but no, I did a stupid human trick. I flushed the toilet again.
Back in third grade science, I remember learning that if you keep filling something, and nothing is draining out, soon the contents will overflow. I know there is a scientific word for it, but let’s just say that Mount Toilet erupted all over the bathroom floor.
Here’s your plumbing hint of the day. If you put a plunger into a toilet that is overflowing with water, and start plunging again, even more water will spill on the floor. Here’s also a consumer alert. Those paper towels don’t soak up as much water in real like as they do on T.V, I don’t care what brand it is.
After my third trip to the laundry room (and past Joni) for the paper towels, and two different mops, my alert and astute wife figured out her husband was trying to be brilliant. So she sweetly asked, “What did you do?”
I thought that telling her “I tried to unplug the toilet by flushing it three times” would not be a good thing. As a preacher, I thought the Biblical story of Noah would be helpful, but flooding the bathroom floor is little extreme for an object lesson. So I resorted to a time honored husbandly tradition. I just grunted and hoped I could get the mess cleaned up before she got curious. I almost made it.
So why did I do it? I’ve been asking myself all morning . I know that you don’t unplug a toilet by flushing it over and over. You plunge it, and yell unpastoral things at it.
The Bible doesn’t mention the apostle Paul having any plumbing problems, but Paul does express frustration over not always knowing why he does what he does. Romans 7:16-20 says,
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.£ For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Paul wanted to do what is right but he doesn’t. He knows what sin is, and does it anyway. Why? Because of our nature to sin, which somewhat resembles what we find in a toilet.

The good news is that the mop is found in Romans 8:1, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Our sins are mopped away, cleaned, and sterilized by the cross of Calvary. Joni had to mop the floor for me. Jesus hung on the cross for us. The result is the same, a new start. We still make boneheaded mistakes. We take them to the cross, learn from our mistakes and start new again.

Now where did I put that plunger.