Jan and I were both working in the back yard Tuesday evening when our son Samuel burst from the back door and said “Houston, we have a problem.” When asked to identify the problem, he said his friend had used the toilet and managed to stop it up. After multiple flushes, it was overflowing.
We hustled inside to find a waterfall cascading from the light fixture over our breakfast table, splashing over papers, books, other miscellaneous items — and two laptop computers that were, fortunately, closed.
I ran upstairs to find half an inch of water on the floor of an upstairs bathroom with more gushing from the bowl of the toilet, which was running full steam ahead. I managed to slide through and turn off the water, then mopped up with towels and plunged the toilet while Jan sought to rescue our computers and clean up the mini-flood that had come through the ceiling.
For a while there, we were not happy campers. Eventually, however, we got everything under control. Amazingly, our laptops survived. There will probably be a stain on the ceiling, but no deeper damage.
Meanwhile, in Louisville, KY, messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention voted out Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth for its perceived acceptance of homosexuals, and heard a raft of sermons insisting that brighter days are ahead for the beleaguered convention, if only it will be more committed to missions/the Bible/evangelism/the “Great Commission Resurgence” or whatever ax the particular speaker wanted to grind.
I’m missing that excitement this year, along with all the off-the-wall motions and resolutions common to such meetings. Come to think of it, dealing with a toilet fountain doesn’t seem so bad after all.
[Cartoon image from ehow.com.]
Professor of Old Testament at Campbell University Divinity School in Buies Creek, North Carolina, and the Contributing Editor and Curriculum Writer at Good Faith Media.
