The Week that Trouble Came Times Three

A Testimony by Laurie Bassett
Grandview, MO Community of Christ
July 7, 2008

We’ve all heard the sayings “Trouble always comes in threes.” and “When it rains it pours”, but the first week of June in 2008 embodied those phrases both literally and figuratively.

It did start with rain—pouring, torrential rain. Add that to some kind of glitch that shut down the sewage lift station, and it equaled six inches of raw sewage in our basement. Having lived through the mess of a sewage back-up a year earlier, my husband and I were completely overwhelmed by the amount of work to be done. On a note of God-given inspiration, I called a friend from church. She sent an e-mail out to members of our congregation explaining the situation. Even though it was a weekday, we had a dozen people show up to help. Others brought food to feed the workers. It is amazing how much faster a job gets done with extra help. What had taken days, even weeks before, was mostly done by evening. The belongings, shelves, furniture, and toys had been carried up to the garage. What could be saved had been washed in Clorox, and the rest had been hauled away. The water was vacuumed out and the carpet disposed of. The next evening took care of the drywall, and then the entire place was bleached. Through that horror, we were able to see how many caring friends God has placed in our lives.

The same day, my husband received an e-mail from his boss, setting up a meeting for two days later. Greg felt sure that the purpose of the meeting was to terminate his position. We knew that things hadn’t been good at his job, and had felt for a while that he should look for something else. However, a lack of time and the comfort of a good and consistent paycheck had gotten in the way. After lots of praying and feeling sick to my stomach for two days, it happened. It was, however, on better terms than I would have anticipated. He would still be working for the next month, with his last day being July 4. He immediately began the job hunt, meeting with recruiters daily and sending out his resume. Two weeks into the hunt he met with a recruiter that knew of a job that would be coming available shortly. He put Greg’s resume in. The third week was a blur with three interviews on three consecutive days and a job offer on the fourth. The pay was better than his previous job. The position would be considered a promotion. And he was really excited both about the company and the type of work he would be doing. If he hadn’t lost his job just when he did, he would have missed this opportunity completely. Oh, and the job begins on July 7, with only the weekend between the old one and the new.

On that same awful day, I received in the mail a tick removal kit that I had ordered from the Lyme Association for our first aid kit. Along with the kit, they had enclosed a brochure on Lyme’s Disease. Trying to unwind after our horrific day, I looked through the brochure before turning out the light. It was with a sinking feeling of disbelief that I realized a couple of the pictures were almost an exact match of the rash our five year-old had on her back. A doctor’s appointment confirmed that my fears were justified, and started her on 21 days of antibiotic. Even though she’s not completely out of the woods, I think she is okay. I recognize the miracle of ordering the kit exactly when I did, and then actually looking at the brochure in spite of everything else going on that day. I never saw a tick on her, and wouldn’t have thought much about the rash unless it had gotten worse. Without that brochure, a diagnosis might not have happened for months. By then the disease would have begun to wreak havoc on her little system with its devastating and debilitating symptoms.

Even though we were hard hit with trouble that week, the resulting blessings and miracles have been nothing short of amazing. When in the midst of trials it’s really difficult to see through to the other side. When I finally gave the problems to God and told him that he would have to deal with them because I couldn’t. I found peace. He took the chance to illustrate a scripture promise in our lives. Romans 8:28 states, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God…” The exciting part is that I don’t believe that God is done with the blessings he will bring out of these three problems.