Looking for peace while facing a calamity of errors

The VOICE of Inspiration

By Don Lindsey

To say that the last couple of days have been interesting would be an understatement. Early in the week, the window air conditioner in our bedroom went out reminding us that central air is a must have for our home. On Friday night, we discovered that a pipe had broke on the side of our house flooding out a small area before we were able to catch it. If that weren’t enough, our plumbing went out as a result of the lack of water pressure and with seven people in the house, it caused a few issues that kept me up until 3 am troubleshooting. It seemed as if something could go wrong, it would find a way to do so.

Thankfully, we have the greatest neighbors that we’ve ever had and being in the a/c business, he was able to help me pull out the broken one and replace it on Thursday, and when we discovered the broken pipe on Friday, he was out in the mud at 10:30 in the evening, fixing it for us. To top it all off, he was having a worse week than we were with the transmission in his truck going out and it is his primary mode of transportation, and yet there he was, in a good mood, helping a neighbor.

I drove him around to a couple of places during the week as he looked to fix his truck or purchase a new one and every time he would get close to a solution, another problem would arise eliminating that option. Where I tend to get frustrated and forget to pray my way through issues, he does not have that problem and despite all the roadblocks he encountered kept praying. Now, I’m not saying that he didn’t get upset like anyone else would, but after he would pray, I noticed that he seemed to relax, and would focus on his next option.

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t pick up on this fully until I was plunging away at 1 am Saturday morning, muttering things under my breath that I shouldn’t have been muttering. Once it did sink in, however, I gave it a try. I prayed for peace and patience and slowly started to relax. I also started to put in perspective the issues in places such as Hawaii against the “problems” I experienced through the week and realized that I am blessed to be in the situation that I am in. I thought back to how scared I was during Irma and started to pray for those in the path of danger.

Before I knew it, I was no longer frustrated and was happy to see progress being made as the water receded. After finally going to bed and getting a couple hours of sleep, I was even happier to see that our plumbing problem was resolved when I woke up. I was able to stay in a good mood as I ran errands and helped my neighbor do a couple of things but when I got home, frustration hit again as it appeared that our issues with the plumbing were back. My wife, knowing me better than I know myself, calmed me down and ended up fixing the issue. After cooling off and praying, I started to find a sense of peace again. With that sense of peace came a reminder that prayer isn’t about asking for favors, it’s about communing with The Lord. Unloading my burden through prayer works for me, it takes off my shoulders stress that always seems to work itself out when I’m patient.

The lesson I learned this week? When looking for peace during a calamity of errors, give prayer a try and allow God to do the heavy lifting.

Don Lindsey is a follower of Christ, son, husband, father, and a survivor. Originally from Dayton Ohio, and resident of Apopka for six years, Don sees his life as a dedication to his wife, parents, children, and community.