S05E018, Toilet Seat Hinges, Andy B 2 Minute Video
While repairing the seat hinge on one of our toilets a couple of things occurred to me.
Well, to be honest 3 things occurred to me.
Firstly, that I needed to clean the toilet soon!
Secondly, that it’s worth remembering the next time I use a toilet in someone else’s home to check if they have a slow close toilet seat like we do - to avoid any embarrassing toilet loud crashes and potential breakages!
Thirdly, it’s really easy to know we have our feet planted exactly where we thought they were – right next to God. But, we can find ourselves turning our head, one tiny bit at a time until, eventually, we’re wondering where God is.
As ever, He is exactly where we last looked – right next to us!
The hinge on our toilet seat doesn’t go out of alignment quickly. It takes several months. Once you notice it not working quite right it’s really easy to make it work properly again – you just have to get the hinges a tiny bit of attention (one of them simply needs pushing back where it belongs – perhaps just 1 centimetre).
And so it is with our relationship God – it is super easy to lost sight of where He is. It is also, mercifully, even easier to find Him again.
How? Just take a pause and listen – much like the way bubbles always rise on water, so is the voice of God always evident. It just takes us standing still and listening.
Just a thought...
Andy B
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Transcript
So another Andy B 2 Minute Video. And I've just fixed the hinge on our toilet seat lid. Because, what happens is, it's a slow, slow close toilet seat, which is brilliant. So, you know, that kind of thing and it gently falls down, it doesn't crash. But, sometimes it gets a bit out of alignment. There's two pins at the bottom, and they move out of line and all of a sudden, it's not just closing, it's going really, really slowly. And, now, it's pulling the top lid as well, which isn't great.
0:33
So I got, thought, two thoughts out of this one.
0:36
One, when you have a closing toilet seat, that is slow, and it nice and gently all nice and calm and quietly, beware when you go to somebody's house that doesn't have one. Because, when you close the toilet, there's going to be a rather large bang, and you might break the toilet.
0:52
A second thing I thought was this. Where have you turned your face away from God?
0:57
Often we think about moving away from God, and moving towards God and all that kind of thing. But this was quite specific. We haven't moved our feet. We know that we're in close proximity to God. And yet we feel like we can't see God 'cos He's moved away. But actually, yeah, our feet haven't moved. But our head, ever so slightly, has moved further and further and further away. A little bit at a time.
1:18
Just like the hinge n our toilet seat, it hasn't suddenly broken. But, every time it gets closed it moves a tiny bit, and a fraction more, and a tiny bit more until eventually, after several months it's not working right. And this happens in our Christian lives, doesn't it. Because we don't realise we've drifted away from God.
1:37
Perhaps we haven't moved our feet. We still go to church. We still read our bible. We still pray. But we can't see God because now our face is, we're not looking at God. But it's really easy to move a little bit at a time, because we don't notice it. It's a bit like putting the frog in boiling water. It jumps out. Put it in cold water, heat it up, and you can kill the frog. It doesn't notice the small changes.
2:00
It's really easily sorted to check in with God. It's really easy to have our eyes very slowly taken away from Him. So it's a simple thought for this one.
2:12
Maybe you think well I'm still doing all the good, godly things I'm supposed to do but I feel distant. I feel He's far away.
2:20
Have you said thank you to God?
2:21
Have you been grateful today?
2:23
Have you worshipped Him?
2:24
Have you helped somebody else?
2:27
Let's be careful not just to do the religious bits, important stuff! and forget the relationship as well.
2:34
Just a thought