The Taming of the Sink

When I first moved into Shiloh the sink in the kitchen was a violent beast. It would spray water everywhere, and doing the dishes for the first time was definitely a helter-skelter endeavor, with water spewing haphazardly in a plethora of direction. By the end I was covered in water, along with the floor and the surrounding areas. I was fed up and refused to use it, even coming to the point of buying paper plates and plastic utensils. Most of the time we do not bother to choose the Grace of learning to love what frustrates us, and instead choose to avoid it entirely.

One day I fortuitously observed Nathan washing his cereal bowl, water splattering everywhere. Nathan churlishly hit the water faucet several times until a steady stream of water came pouring out. Without question I followed suit and began to mimic this technique. For the next several days I became proficient with this approach, and instinctively did it everytime. Most of the time we do not bother to know how something works, but simply that it does.

A few days later I was in the kitchen and once again observed Nathan crassly swatting the sink to work. Jon looked at him befuddled and walked over to the sink, gently pulled the spout out, and produced the same effect resulting in a consistent peaceful stream of water. All we had to do was learn how the sink worked to know how to treat it. Most of the time we do not realize that there is always a higher way of doing things, other than the way we do it.

The higher way is often a painful blow to us because we can be just as unruly and obstinate as the sink in our kitchen. We treat knowledge of the alternatives as the swatting of a hand to our face, and when we do eventually come to the point of a consistent stream, it is because we have been boorishly beaten into submission.

Most of us have heard the phrase "experience is the best teacher," taking to heart its erroneous claim. Benjamin Franklin wisely states the higher alternative, "Experience keeps a dear school, yet fools learn in no other." What this knowingly implies is that the best teacher is not your experience, even though good lessons are learned, but instead the experiences of others should be the seed of knowledge and the applicability will be the fruit. The best teacher is the experiences of others who have already done it.

When you allow yourself to be open to the gentle taming of the Divine, you are able to follow an example higher than your own and be like a consistent stream of water without the swatting of a hand across your face. Gentle guidance is only earned through consistent example. If you are living it right, then you are being observed by others, testing to see what way works and what way does not. But if you are living it righteous, then you are not just being observed and tested for flaws, you are being followed, because the way you learned not only works, but is contagious. The swatting of the faucet does not tame the sink, it destroys it, and will only work if you are there to beat it. The taming of the sink comes from the Grace of a gentle pull.


"This year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practise ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people."

C. S. Lewis


-Sher