Checking the Time

Earlier this week we had a visit from our water supplier.  They are going around all the homes to do checks and make sure that all our facilities are up-to-date and see if they can save us any money.  Well, I'm all for saving money where I can so I agreed to their visit.  I was told it would take about 45 minutes.  The representative came and began checking all the taps, cisterns, pipework and machines that use water, making sure that we use them in such a way that we aren't wasting water unnecessarily.  

The timer that stuck half way

After only 15 minutes, he said that he couldn't find anything that we could or should change and that the water system in our house has passed with flying colours and he was giving us a 'clean bill of health' so to speak.  Before going on to the next house, he left us with a small timer.  He said that it should only take us 4 minutes to have a shower and that this timer would help us to see if we were complying with this suggestion.  It should take four minutes for the contents to go from the top to the bottom of the timer.  He jokingly said that we could also use it to time how long it takes to boil an egg.

The next morning, while using the shower, I thought I would try the timer just out of curiosity, although I didn't think I ever stayed in the shower for too long anyway.  Well I had my shower and checked the timer.  The contents were only half way through which puzzled me a bit so I thought I would check it again.  So I turned the timer to begin the count again.  Sure enough, the same thing happened.  Half way through, the contents stuck and the whole process came to a halt.  I left it for a while but it didn't move any further.  Just as well I didn't use it as an egg timer, I thought!

It reminded me of the advert for paint that says - 'It does what it says on the tin' meaning that you can trust it to do what it's supposed to, except this was just the opposite.  When we tell people that God is love and that we follow the teachings of Jesus and then they look at our lives, I wonder it they think we are acting and saying things that really show what God is like or are we a bit of a disappointment.  Does my life do 'what it says on the tin' or are my words empty, a bit of a pointless gesture that doesn't really mean anything? It's not so much what we say but how we actually live and put our words into practice in the ordinary, daily walk of life that counts. As another saying goes, 'actions speak louder than words.'