By: Denny

It’s monsoon season in Iowa, or so it seems. It recently rained every day for four days. There were downpours that lasted for hours and other times when it just rained steady all day. After the first day my rain gauge showed well over two inches. The ground is saturated, and the grass is growing tall because it’s too wet to mow. However, the best indicator for me that we’ve had a lot of rain are my basement sump pumps. I have three inside basement pumps and one on the outside of the house. Two of the inside pumps have been kicking in at steady intervals from every fifteen minutes to an hour. The third inside pump is located on the side of the basement where the ground has a greater slope away from the house. Normally, it doesn’t run that much, but I’ve even heard it pumping occasionally. When we bought this house in 1997, the basement was unfinished. Mostly since when it rained the water would come in everywhere. It was built in 1952. The floor and walls are poured concrete. The water would seep through in several places in the edges where the walls intersect with the floor. We wanted a finished basement that we could use, but we needed to deal with the water issue first. After considering our options and our finances, I took the do-it-yourself route. Since water will take the path of least resistance, I decided the best locations for the three pumps. I then cut holes in the floor three feet deep to accommodate the sump well baskets. Next, I used my skill saw with a diamond concrete blade and cut an eight-inch-wide channel in the floor eight inches from the wall around the inside perimeter. I busted up the concrete by hand with a sledgehammer. I dug the trench to a depth of two to three feet with enough fall to drain towards each sump well, and paid our young son and his friend twenty-five cents a bucket to carry the chunks of concrete and dirt upstairs and outside. I threw in a base of pea rock and laid perforated plastic drain tile followed by more rock, sand, and finished with eight inches of concrete to smooth out the channels even with the floor. Our water problem was solved, but I sure was sore from working on my knees to run the saw, and my arms and back ached from busting up the old concrete and mixing and pouring the new. Lucy and I framed and insulated the walls and finished off the basement with sheet-rock. We hired a friend to lay the carpet.

Everything was great until many years later when we had an absolute deluge of rain that the ground couldn’t absorb the water fast enough to reach the basement pump. The water was filling up two window wells and pouring in through the window edges. What a mess! A word of advice; don’t ever build a basement with the windows below ground level. You’re only asking for trouble. To make matters worse, the ground on that side slopes slightly toward the house. I couldn’t add more fill dirt as a remedy because there is a sidewalk there. I’m not one to easily give in to defeat, so that’s when I sunk the fourth pump on the outside between the house and sidewalk as a first line of defense against overwhelming downpours. I also trenched in another line of tile the whole length of that side of the house with a drain fitting and connected it to the sump well. As an extra measure to help the water drain down faster to the basement pumps, I dug vertical shafts with my post hole digger as far down as I could go in every window well. I inserted the tile with a top cap and back-filled with pea rock. I also installed battery backup auxiliary pumps in each of the three inside sump wells. I figured all that work would be for nothing if the power goes out during a storm. It was over twenty years ago when I first took on and finished this project. My point is this: At the age of seventy, I am not physically able and could not do it again if I had to. I’m glad I did it when I was younger so that now I have peace and confidence when the storms come. My hard work has paid off.

There are many things that are beneficial, and one should do while they are young, because when you get old it becomes difficult and harder to do. Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books in the Bible, and chapter twelve sums up the previous eleven and talks about when you grow old in years and “the difficult days” come. NKJ version (The words in parenthesis are mine)

Vs 1-7:  Remember (seek, pursue, get right with) now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, “I have no pleasure in them”. While the sun and the light, the moon and the stars, are not darkened, and the clouds do not return after the rain (every day and night seem the same). In the day when the keepers of the house tremble (shakiness of hands and loss of grip strength), and the strong men bow down (walk bent over); When the grinders (teeth) cease because they are few, and those that look through the windows grow dim (poor eyesight); When the doors are shut in the streets, and the sound of grinding is low (hearing loss); When one rises up at the sound of a bird (unable to distinguish, comprehend or easily aroused or frightened by normal sounds), and all the daughters of music are brought low (voice gets lower, can’t hit the high notes anymore); Also when they are afraid of height, and of terrors in the way (fear of falling or tripping over things); When the almond tree blossoms (hair turns gray), The grasshopper is a burden (little things irritate and disturb you), and desire fails (lose your excitement for life). For man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets (funeral procession). Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the well (can’t do the simple tasks and are no longer productive). Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.  Romans 14:12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Here’s the deal: Find God in your youth and serve Him all your days. Life holds many avenues that can be pursued, but don’t allow any of them to become more important than pursuing and knowing God your Creator. When you are old and all those things you thought were so important have disappeared, what will you have left if you don’t have a relationship with God. If you did the hard work of finding God in your younger years; you’ll have peace and confidence later in life when the difficult days come, and they surely will come. Not only will it be harder due to physical and mental complications, but you may also not have much time left. God instructed Noah to build an ark to save his family and the animals that entered it from the coming storm that would destroy all living things on the outside of the ark. That was a shadow, a type, and symbolic of what God the Father did when he sent Jesus Christ His only son to die for all mankind and save them from their sin condition. Just as there was only one ark, there is only one Jesus, and He is the only way to be saved today and from the impending coming storm. Don’t wait until you’re old, or you’re not mentally sound and capable. Even if you are advanced in years, it’s never too late to accept Christ as your savior, if you never have. Young person, enter the ark (JESUS) now and give your life to Him today. Deal with the sin issue first before moving on in finishing your life. Many are those who have regrets later in life who didn’t and wasted so much time that could’ve been spent serving Him. Do-it-yourself might work for home repairs and other things, but it’s worthless in obtaining forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Ephesians 3:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.