Downspout

DOWN AND OUT SPOUT

Carlos, our manager, is constantly speaking in roofer lingo. Every once in a while when I’m really paying attention and hear something I don’t know I’ll google it really quick. The other day I heard the word “downspout” for the 40^th time and decided to googled it. Here is what I found, a downspout connects to your gutter and gets excess water from your gutter to the ground. The whole aspect of extra water running off the roof was beautiful to me.

A Little Spiritual Truth
Listen to this. You know that person in your life who just constantly gets under-your-skin? Don’t lie to me…we all have someone who we just can’t be around for a long time without an urge to slap them. During my trip, I was placed in a group of 5 people and they were “my” team. As a team, we did everything together — ministry, eat and sleep next to each other. Literally, EVERYTHING together. There was no break from the person that put you over the edge. We had to deal with each other – there was no avoiding it. We had to continue to spend time, talk to, but most importantly love.

For me, this was so hard. I used to not be a very tolerant person, at all. I would get to the point where everyone annoyed me. At the beginning of this trip that’s what I would do. I would just snap at people — I would pout and ignore — I would be straight up rude to people just because they annoyed me. Then the Lord brought “me” (my thoughts, my actions, my words) into focus. I used to think I was so much better than other people because I had been a Christian my entire life. I hadn’t done drugs or drank alcohol and for heavens sake I was on a nine month mission trip. See, I thought I was better, so I looked down on everyone. I didn’t care about them the way that Jesus does.

Be a Downspout
What I learned on this trip was to the be a downspout. To let Jesus’ love fill me up so that all I can do is pour out all the overflow onto everyone around me. When I really fell in love with Jesus, it was because I realized just how much I didn’t deserve it and how much I really needed him. Once I realized just how out of sync I was, I knew just how much Jesus loves me and how he wants to love everyone else through me. Guys, we’re all on the same level. We’re all out of sync, each in our own way. Realizing this, all I could do was pour out all that Jesus was pouring in to me.

A downspout not only keeps extra water off the roof it also drains the water away from the foundation of your home. It directs the water away from the foundation so it doesn’t damage, root, or leak through your foundation. If we’re not pouring out the things the Lord is teaching us, it doesn’t help those around us. We aren’t going to be able to love people well and in turn, they are just going to drive us up a wall.

Let’s be downspouts, a downspout of Jesus’s love.