Sunday, June 13, 2010

Lessons from the Sump Pump

It is funny how things work out sometime. My wife and I have some friends who we unexpectedly spent some time with on Saturday. But before I get to that I have go back a bit.

It's been raining a lot in this part of Iowa of late. Heavy rain of 1 to two inches in less than a couple of hours. That's exactly what happened on Saturday when it started to pour around 4:30 AM and did not stop until close to eight. I started a load of wash about that time and a hour later went downstairs to move it to the dryer. The floor was wet. I discovered the sump pump had stopped and water was coming in through the foundation. I yelled to my wife to call some friends to see if they had a shop vac. They did not...but they did have expertise. Tim and his son Justin came over while his wife, Gail, rounded up a Shop Vac. Soon the five of us were in the basement moving things while Tim exclaimed after an investigation that the Sump Pump had pumped its last. We quickly bought another one and he was willing to stick hand and arm in more than elbow deep water to yank out the old one and put in the new one while the rest of us keep sweeping and bailing.

They did not have to do it. But despite busy schedules, they threw them aside to help friends in need. And they saved those friends at least a couple of C notes to boot. The unselfnish nature demonstrated by them yesterday is clearly a lesson each of us should learn from. Life is full of inconveniences. But there are some that actually turn out to be blessings in more than one way. Such was the case in my basement on that Saturday morning.

So the next time the phone rings and someone you know could use an extra set of hands...put your busy schedule aside and serve that friend. The friendship will be stronger for it and we could all use some of that in these times. Besides, there's always tomorrow for that busy schedule.

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