Four Letter Word

Recently we had a small leak in our laundry room. It was just a small trickle of water. Tony opened the wall, had the plumber fix the leaking pipe, dried it up and we thought we were done. About a week or so later Tony pulled out the stove so that we could paint our kitchen cabinets. Guess what we found. MOLD.



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My kitchen and laundry room share a wall, so we knew the mold was from the leak. This prompted us to call a friend who had a moisture meter and we realized the leak had been much worse than originally thought and not only was the sub-floor in the laundry room soaked, there was moisture under a corner of cabinets in the kitchen that was buckling the hardwood floors and of course, feeding the mold.

A small problem turned pretty substantial in a very short amount of time. A call to our insurance agent assured us that we should go ahead with a claim. Once the adjustor had come out to view and estimate the damage, he gave us the go ahead to pull out the cabinets so we could asses the mold and dry out the floor beneath the cabinet.

We pulled out the cabinet and discovered not only was the back of the cabinet covered in black mold, but the wall (which I don't have a picture of) was encased in mold from the floor to the bottom of the tile backsplash. What a mess!

Thankfully the mold problem was easily solved by cutting out sheetrock, spraying anti-microbial spray and putting in new sheetrock.

This week we are packing up our house so that we can have our floors redone. Although only a few boards were damaged, because our floors are continuous throughout our entire house, they all have to be sanded and refinished. Long drawn out sigh. Talk about a lot of work. The funny (kinda) part of this whole situation is that a few weeks prior to the leak and subsequent mold, I had joked to Tony that this was the first pregnancy I've had that we haven't had a major construction project! Ha!

You know, this story has an interesting parallel to life. You have a few small sin issues you are dealing with. They cause a little "scene", so you say a prayer for forgiveness and clean up the mess. A little bit later, the sin resurfaces in a different place and it's grown a little bit and it's definitely uglier. So, you maybe read your Bible, go to church a few times...try to change. And then, one day, you suddenly find a mass of dirty, stinky, black mold that has grown uncontrolled and unfettered and it's not only ruining your insides, it's affecting your outsides too. It's caused damage that will require significant time, effort and energy to repair. And your life is in upheaval.

Sin is like mold. It grows in dark, hidden places, thrives in unhealthy conditions, Damages, destroys and makes you sick. Even scrubbing a moldy surface isn't always enough to remove the stains, often it requires drastic measures to remove and cast off. And if care isn't taken, things aren't properly maintained, mold can come back and do it's dirty work again, creating the same ugly problems and requiring more time, effort and energy to remove. Or swallowing you entirely until you find yourself condemned, with only one Chance for restoration. 

Ah, but there is always Hope. One who can clean up a huge mess, make everything like new and then forget it even happened! A deep and thorough cleansing washing everything whiter than pure, sparkly, crisp snowfall.

Perhaps the most important part of all, is the afterwards. You immerse yourself in God's Word, pray without ceasing, attend and get involved in a Bible believing church, spend time with people whose insides are as sunshiney clean as their outsides.

And our loving Father promises,

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,

we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus,

his Son, purifies us from all sin.

1 John 1:7