I love opening up our cottage after the winter and getting it all ready for a new summer season. But I have to tell you, I have my fingers crossed when I do it.

You just never know if things will work properly after sitting dormant for a while.

There’s not a lot to opening up our cottage. You turn on the power from the source; you turn on the water and get it flowing; you turn on the gas so you have heat and a working stove.

Electricity is always first for me. It’s the easiest thing to turn back on … a few flicks of some circuit breakers and, voila, you have lights and a working fridge.

Having lights lets you do the other work without feeling around like everything is in Braille.

I get the gas turned on next because it’s also pretty easy. After turning on the propane tank, I simply light the stove burners and turn the heat on.

Then there is the water. It’s not hard; it just takes a little more work. You have to hook up the hoses, turn the water on at the source and then systematically turn the different taps on to coax the water out and start filling the hot water tank.

Those are the main things we need to do. The rest is set up and clean up.

But every year there seems to be some kind of issue with starting up. I think two factors play into that …

First, the place has been sitting for six months in a dormant state, and second, I only open the cottage once a year so I don’t have a well-oiled routine.

Last year I had a heater problem. You can read about that here: ______ It turned out I had forgotten to take some tape off a vent.

One year I needed to replace the filler, float and flapper in our toilet. It had frozen over the winter and was leaking in the spring.

This year – wow – it was a mystery. I turned on the water and all the taps were working.

But as I tested the hot water lines to see if the water was flowing out of them, the tap in the bathroom sink dried up. I was getting water out of all the other faucets but nothing out of the bathroom sink.

Then I turned the cold water on again … nothing. Every other water source worked except that one set of taps.

I just couldn’t figure it out. Fortunately, we could live without water from that sink so I decided to sleep on it and tackle the issue in the morning. Secretly I was hoping it would magically fix itself.

… Turns out, living at the beach, it’s possible to accumulate a fair amount of sand in the water lines. The aspirator on that faucet was completely beached! … Easy fix.

Here’s the thing: You know when you take a break from serving God in some capacity?  Maybe you needed a rest; maybe it was time to leave a particular ministry. Maybe you moved from one place to another and you haven’t jumped right back into ministry. When you do go to start up again, don’t think you will pick up where you left off. Starting up again is not as simple as flicking a switch. Seek God’s help, guidance and wisdom as you move into service so you don’t go into it in your own strength.

That’s life!

Paul

Question:  What have you started up recently? Leave your comment below.