The Surfactant of Relationship

Due to a prolonged drought in NSW, level 2 water restrictions are now being enforced.  This means sprinklers and hoses are no longer permitted for watering lawns or washing cars.  All watering must be done by hand with a bucket or watering can.  Had I known water restrictions were coming I wouldn't have put so much effort or time to beautify the lawn in spring!

Because it has been so dry and hot lately when I bucket water on burnt spots the water just runs off.  The soil and roots desperately need water but the hardness of the ground repels it.  When I was trained to remove asbestos as a union mechanical insulator it was common to add a "surfactant" or wetting agent to the water before spraying the material to be removed.  Because asbestos is most dangerous when airborne a key part of the removal process is to thoroughly wet it.  The high surface tension of water does not allow it to penetrate the material and much of the water is wasted as runoff.  But when a little detergent is added to a sprayer it is remarkable to see it almost magically absorbed by a previously hydrophobic surface.  What a difference a surfactant makes!

It isn't just soil which can become hard and dry:  it can happen to our hearts as well.  The irony is love, kindness, and grace do not always penetrate a hard heart that thirsts for it, just like a bucket of refreshing water can run off hard ground without effect.  After we are rebuffed it may seem like a waste to "invest" or continue to pour ourselves into people who repel our efforts.  It occurred to me today a surfactant can make all the difference.  When removing asbestos it didn't matter what brand or kind or detergent was used, and only a few drops made a huge difference.  In a similar way there are many things which impact the hearts of people like a wetting agent which enables them to receive instruction, care, and love.  Shared experiences, building rapport through faithfulness, gentleness, and patience are key.  If I boil it down, the key wetting agent for hard hearts is loving relationship.  Having a genuine relationship with a person makes them more apt to receive what God graciously supplies through others.

Building and cultivating relationships is much more difficult, time consuming, and costly than maintaining a green lawn in drought conditions.  But praise the LORD there is never any restrictions on His infinite supply of love, grace, and goodness.  Like the widow's oil and flour that was miraculously replenished day by day according to God's Word, God provides the Holy Spirit for those who are born again by faith in Jesus without measure.  Every vessel has a limit of capacity, but Jesus has promised He will cause Living Water to overflow from us.  We are not sufficient for these things, yet God is!  Instead of despairing over perceived hardness of hearts in others, we ought to ensure we are humbling ourselves to walk in love and be spiritually well-hydrated ourselves in our relationship with God.  It is good to identify ourselves as the only hard-hearted one we have a responsibility to change through repentance, submission, and obedience to God.  Let us not write-off those who repel our efforts to love and minister to but labour to add the surfactant of loving relationship.