The Joys of Mold

Great. Just this week we discovered mold in the wall of our dining room. Evidently at some point in the past we began having a roof leak that trickled down into the wall. It made its way down to the very corner where the two walls and the floor meet one another. Unfortunately this little corner is covered over by a small table and the mold lurking behind the table was likely there for quite some time before it was discovered.

Well, we have found it now. We called a company to come out and check the damage and could hear a distant sound of a cash register..."cha-ching! cha-ching!" It will likely be a wheelbarrow full of loot to cover the cost of repair. Thankfully our homeowners insurance should cover a portion of the damage.

As I was thinking about the whole upcoming ordeal I began to feel overwhelmed at what may be coming our way...moving all of the furniture, china and "chochkies" out of the living room, ripping out the carpet, replacing a portion of the floor that has dry rot, moving a portion of the wall and possibly tearing our the cabinets in the kitchen because they are on the opposite side of the wall, followed by replacing the wall, carpets, sheet rock and texturing and repainting. I am not even sure where we will put everything while it is all torn up.

In the middle of my melt down I called dear, old mom. She is always the sane and saintly voice of godly reason. She comforted me that she had peace about it and that it wasn't going to end up as bad as I expected. I felt a bit better when I hung up the phone and when I started thinking about all of the things that could have happened had we not found the mold now, my anxiety began to be replaced by gratefulness.

We had a drought this past year and this coming winter is supposed to be an "El Nino" year meaning prolonged heavy rains. Had we found the damage in the middle of this coming winter the mold and water damage could be much worst and much more costly. God was gracious and showed us the damage before the seasonal rains came this year.

No one has gotten sick. We still are unable to detect any smell of mold and no one has gotten ill from the spores being in the air. Mold is dangerous stuff. The old testament goes into great detail about getting rid of mold/mildew a house. I am not looking at this in a legalistic way. I believe those passages were in scripture to protect us. In biblical times they had no concept of microbiology, germs and such. God was protecting the children of Israel against something that could be very deadly. I am grateful that the Lord showed us the problem before any of us fell ill.

This morning I opened the door to one of my patients. She was beside herself upset, tied up in knots, on the verge of tears and pleading with me to pray for her. She has been a patient for over twenty years and we have a long history together. When I asked her what had happened to have her so upset, she said, "Yesterday we found out that we have a bunch of mold and standing water in our attic. The man who did the stucco on our house accidentally blocked a drainage pipe for the roof with stucco and water has been slowly backing up into our attic for the past 10 years. Water is flowing out of over flow pans and is soaking into the ceilings over all of our bedrooms. We are afraid the ceilings will collapse and they are covered with mold."

How my heart went out to the dear soul and imagine her surprise when I told her our story of finding mold in the very same week. It says in 2 Corinthians 1:4, "who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." It felt so good this morning to fulfill that scripture...comfort that dear woman this morning with the comfort I received from my mom and through scripture. She walked in the door upset and on the verge of tears and she left actually laughing. We recounted how the Lord spared all of their lives by bringing the problem to all of their attention before the ceiling caved in on her sleeping family, how they had homeowners insurance that would pay for much of the damage and how now she would be able to repaint the walls and freshen things up around the house once all of the repairs were done.

I know I have said it before, but it always amazes me how great a difference a grateful heart makes in how we view each circumstance in life. While it is never a convenient time to rip your house apart such as what our two households have ahead of us, we are so grateful that God protected both of our families from physical harm. Even though it will mean repair costs that we never expected, it will mean that our homes will be restrengthened and freshened up. The Good Book says that all things work together for the good for those who love the Lord and who are called according to His purpose. Well, I certainly love the Lord. Let's see how He works this together for our good. I have decided to thank the Lord for the mold and for this circumstance. I know. I must sound pretty crazy to thank the Lord for mold. But I suspect this trial is a vehicle to bless me in the long run if I respond properly and praise Him in the midst of the trial. I don't know how He is going to do it, but I trust He will turn it for my good. He's pretty clever that way you know!