Looking Under the Surface-Belfast, ME

By Mark Ruggerio     

Greetings everyone. It’s now autumn and the leaves are falling. As I was contemplating what to share with you all at this time, a deeper truth occurred to me from two seemingly unrelated events.  

As some of you may already know, early this summer, Emmanuel Baptist Church was able to replace a waterline that went from the parsonage to the church. For the lasts few years, we have had issues with the line, making one repair only to have another problem a year or two later. Therefore, we knew it all needed to be replaced. Through the Lord’s provision, on one very long rainy day, the work got done. I would like to say the day went off without a hitch, but what would a workday be if everything went smoothly? When the trench between the two buildings was over halfway completed, something dreadful happened. We had taken many precautions and dug an extra-long arching trench to avoid any possibility of hitting the main water line to our property

which feeds the parsonage first. But as you can guess, the excavator broke the main line resulting in gallons and gallons of water flooding into the ditch before the town was able to shut the line off. (It took an extra-long time for the main line to be closed because the town valve by the road had rusted and broke when they attempted to shut it off). Long story short, by the end of the day everything was repaired, and we had a new line, and God willing will not have to deal with anymore.  

The second event took place just recently. Mid-September we discovered that someone had vandalized the lights that lit up the Church’s sign down by the road. After contacting the police about the damage and providing them with the information, they had informed us that there had been similar instances in our neighborhood of some youth creating “mischief.” Beyond some broken lights, the result of this mischief was some exposed live wires that were a real safety hazard. Not getting into all the details here, for many reasons the power to the line could not be simply shut off, so the decision was made to cap the line off and ending power to the sign.  

So, what do these two instances have in common? They both involve things under the surface that cannot be seen, a waterline and electrical wires. When we interact with people, we don’t know what is “under the surface.” We do not know what is going on in their lives that day or in their past. We live in a world where people seem to be continually stressed and on edge, how we interact with them can make all the difference. I am so thankful that although we as Believers may not know what is below the surface in people’s lives, our Lord and Savior does. If we are leaning on His Spirit’s direction His Spirit will give us the words to say. Let us remember Jesus words, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

See photos on page 3

Mark Ruggerio