Back In Working Order

My cat, Fitz, has a water fountain.  Listen, I told ya’ll that I like the razzle-dazzle in life.  I am not a cat person by nature, so I did lots of research before I decided to adopt my dude.  Time after time, I read stories that cats can become dehydrated.  They just do not drink like dogs do.  Dehydration causes them all kinds of health issues, and I just was not here for that.  Then I saw it, a pet water fountain.  You know I was sold.

The water fountain arrived in a nice neat box.  I opened the box and found that I could not simply add water and plug the fountain into the outlet.  I saw a filter, a pump, and other pieces that I could not easily identify.  I read the instructions and assembled the fountain with little hassle.  Oh, the joy when I plugged it in!  Water bubbled and then flowed easily out of the top of the fountain.

His fountain resides in my bedroom.  There is less foot traffic there, and he can drink and eat in peace if visitors are around.  (Well back when I used to have visitors).  In my mind, this was the perfect spot.  However, I had not accounted for the sound of the water fountain.  It is rather loud.  It is so loud that visitors can hear it when my bedroom door is closed.  And new visitors generally assume that I have left the water running.  They always let me know, too. 

Yea, I liked the look of the fountain, but I was not prepared for the maintenance or the sound.  One day, I noticed that the water was not flowing as heavily.  As a matter of fact, I could barely hear the fountain.  The lower bowl had plenty of water.  Hmmm….I pulled out the instructions again.  Apparently, I was supposed to clean this fountain.  I breezed over that part when assembling the fountain.  I had ordered extra filters but had not given those a second thought either.  Apparently, I was supposed to change the filters too.  Imagine that!

I unassembled the fountain and found a big mess.  It was gross.  Poor little tiny kitten was not getting the quality of water that he deserved.  I scrubbed the icky parts, changed the filter, and put fresh water in the bowl.  When I plugged the fountain back in, water lept out of the freshly cleaned spout.  Old Fitz was back in business.

You know I’m about to bring this into context with my spiritual life, right?  Okay.  Just checking to see if you know what you signed up for.  My beginning walk with Christ arrived packaged in a nice box like this here water fountain.  I took all the pieces that were given to me and just went with it.  There were so many things that I did not understand, but I did not question them.  I plugged in to Christian life and spouted the truth of Jesus.  I looked good.  I professed my faith loudly.  Others heard it and saw it in my life.  Even when I tried to close it behind doors, you could still hear the truth of who Christ was to me.

Then over time, my witness began to quiet.  The difference was not noticeable at first.  I was slowly polluted by the cares and trials of the world.  My witness was not flowing like it needed to.  And one day, I noticed just how quiet I had become.  How to fix it?  I had to disassemble the pre-packaged Christianity that I had been given.  I had to discover my own relationship with Jesus Christ.  I had to go to the instruction manual, the Holy Bible, for myself.  Getting my faith second hand left me in a clogged-up position.

The cleaning has not been an easy process.  There is muck in crevices that I did not anticipate.  Cleaning requires work and sometimes I do not feel like it.  But know that it is important.  There is a thirsty world that needs the Living Water.  I do not want them to come to get a drink from a polluted fountain.  So each day, I take time to check myself for areas that have not had a good scrubbing.  I want to be sure that I am in working order.  #wepreach