A few weeks ago our whole family went to a weekend ministry conference at the Character Inn in Flint, Michigan. My older brother, Ken is the administrator of the Inn and had invited us for a special weekend and promised we’d enjoy ourselves. We did enjoy ourselves but at one point we wondered if we were in for an unpleasant stay.
It was late the first evening of the conference. We were getting the children settled down for bed. We had a wonderful view of the city from our eleventh-story window and the children were excited about staying in a high-rise hotel. The younger children were mousing back and forth between our adjoining rooms when one of the older boys said, “Hey dad, theirs no water – must be everybody’s taking a shower.”
At first, that sounded reasonable and I thought he meant the pressure was just weak. But when I checked the water there wasn’t a drop to be had. I tried flushing the toilet and the tank didn’t re-fill. I knew there was no way shower taking would cause a problem like this. This building was designed to handle every room being occupied. It was late and fortunately, we were all finished with the bathroom.
I got in bed and thought about how glad I was the problem was my brother’s and not mine. I said a prayer for Ken and his staff and prayed they’d be able to get the water problem solved quickly since there were nearly 500 people staying at the Inn that night. It wasn’t long before I was asleep and I got a very good night’s rest.
In the morning there was water again, a little rusty looking but there was water. While in line for breakfast we saw Ken and he filled us in on the details. There had been a frozen pipe on one of the upper floors of the hotel. They had to shut the water down in the whole building to repair it.
That little episode reminds me of how our heavenly father wants us to rest in His power, knowing He cares for us. His desire for us is that we would go to Him with our every concern and then rest assured knowing He’s got it all under control. It’s always good to know who’s in charge.