For Wilshire Baptist Church
Ever driven down the street and seen some guy kneeling on the ground, a shovel thrown to one side and a big pile of dirt nearby, and he is bent over, digging into a hole with his hands? I was that guy recently.
We had just installed raised beds for vegetable gardening and decided to check the sprinkler system. As expected, the sprinkler heads will need to be raised because they wash the sides of the boxes and leave the soil dry. What was not expected was a gush of water coming from beneath one of the boxes. My first thought was that we had buried a sprinkler head, but no, they are on either side. That meant just one thing: a broken pipe.
Putting aside the fact that a broken lawn irrigation pipe is a first-world problem and a definite sign of economic privilege, I was irritated by the inconvenience of more manual labor. I had already applauded myself for being man enough to build cedar planter boxes, set them in a precise location and fill them with a dozen cubic feet of new soil. I thought my work was done until tomato-picking time.
I’m pleased with myself for having the courage to dig down to my elbows and find the break. But repairing it? I stared into that hole for a long time and decided that someone who makes a living repairing broken irrigation pipes could do in 10 minutes what it might take me hours to complete. And besides, I’m haunted by an incident years ago when a simple faucet repair escalated to the need for a backhoe in the alley. I know my limits.
Most of us are good at finding problems, isolating them, exposing them, pointing them out. In fact, that may have surpassed baseball as the national pastime if you do a casual survey of social media. We’re all about what is wrong in the world, but that’s a subject for another time. I’m talking less culturally and more personally, and while we can see problems readily, we’re not so good at solving and repairing. That’s the hard, messy work that often puts us on our knees.
A lot of being contented in life is being honest about our limits and recognizing when we need help. Another piece of that is knowing who to call for help and not someone who is just slightly less of an amateur than we are. That may be a doctor, lawyer or CPA; an electrician, mechanic or plumber; or a teacher, counselor or pastor. And it’s not who you know; it’s having the courage to call them when you find yourself kneeling next to an ugly hole.
As for the pipe repair, I knew exactly who to call and I’ll let them make the repair and raise the sprinkler heads while they’re at it. But then I’ll be ready with a shovel to put the dirt back in the hole. I’m not the best at repairs, but I’m pretty good at cleaning up.