Frozen Dangers!

Frozen Pipes are not just aggravating but can cause serious consequences. Mississippi is not used to long bouts of freezing weather and our lack of preparedness was evident this winter as the City of Jackson had over 180 water main lines burst causing schools, offices, restaurants, and in some cases hospitals to stop or limit their services. As the city came to a near shutdown of activities many were asking how this could have been prevented. The only answer given is that the pipes were old and needed to be replaced. It appeared there was little thought given to this fact until the pipes broke! Some felt the disaster happened because problems were ignored until it was too late. There is a life-lesson in that!!!

Recently, I went for a wellness check-up…I was feeling great…but the results showed a little build up in an artery that could eventually cause heart problems. I was shocked!!! I thought I was doing fine…my blood pressure was low and things were great but a check-up revealed a potential problem. Hearts and pipes are not much different I discovered…they both need care to function properly and that goes for the spiritual heart as well. Many of us ignore this heart until disaster strikes and it breaks with an outflow of pain and waves of desperation. We often live life…going to church, singing the same songs and doing it all by rote but have not checked the heart pipes for a slow freezing. Having lived in the country for a while, I learned that pipes are less likely to freeze if there was water movement within…thus we kept faucets dripping during freezing weather. Movement tends to keep all kind of things from freezing up but one must be diligent in keeping the movement going.

The Bible speaks often of living water and living water is not stagnant! This should give us a clue of what is important to a vibrant Christian lifestyle. Since the heart (both physical and spiritual) is hidden from our eyes and the eyes of others it is easy to ignore possible problems until the “pipes burst!” When we go to pieces over something that is truly minor it might be that there had been no spiritual movement in our hearts for quite a while. I understand this for there was a time I coasted spiritually letting my prayer life and Bible study go to the back burner. Today, I only need a little nudge to get me back on track but I remember a time when I ignored my heart and within a year found it completely frozen; it was hard and unmoving. That hardness resulted in a tough and cold attitude toward God, the church, and folks in general. I had ceased to show any emotion and spent many months not shedding a single tear yet I continued to go to church and kept up the façade so others wouldn’t know but underneath I was in a spiritually dangerous place. One day I came upon a scripture that brought me hope: Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and will put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a new a heart of flesh!” It was not until then that I could really put a finger on what was wrong… I had become hard-hearted…or frozen. I began to pray for that fleshly heart. God answered and when my heart finally broke all the anger and bitterness flooded out until I was completely spent. Then the tears came and that release allowed my new heart to function correctly again.

Maybe you are struggling with some heart pipe problems, too. I am here as a testimony of how good it is to keep the flow of the living water running through the veins. Jesus promised the Living Water. Drink deeply of His water and I promise your pipes will flow freely…even when things are freezing all around. And by the way, these pipes never get too old!